load factor

noun

The acceleration experienced by an aircraft along a given axis at a particular instant in time.

Meanings

nounload factor (plural load factors)

plural load factors

  1. aeronauticsThe acceleration experienced by an aircraft along a given axis at a particular instant in time.
    1 more example

    FDR data indicated that, about 0915:36, the airplane experienced a 0.04 G drop in longitudinal load factor, a 0.07 G shift to the left in lateral load factor, and about a 0.3 G drop in normal (vertical) load factor. The airplane performance study found that these excursions were consistent with a wake turbulence encounter.

    2004 October 26, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.1 History of Flight”, in Aircraft Accident Report: In-Flight Separation of Vertical Stabilizer, American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus Industrie A300-605R, N14053, Belle Harbor, New York, November 12, 2001, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2022, page 3
  2. transportThe percentage of a transportation system's maximum passenger capacity that is actually used.
  3. businessThe mean load over a given time period divided by the peak load occurring during the same time period, providing a measure of how efficiently an electric system's capacity is being used.
  4. computingThe proportion of the buckets in a hash table which contain entries.
Cite this entry
APA

load factor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/load%20factor

MLA

“load factor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/load%20factor. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “load factor,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/load%20factor.

Source: load factor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.