manbird

plural manbirds

1. alternativeAlternative form of man-bird.

   Aviators needed the space, he said, especially in cases of emergency. "If there should be any accident or a sudden descent, the manbirds would not want to fall onto an automobile or onto the heads of spectators."

   2014, William M. Miller, Eugene Ely, Daredevil Aviator, page 122

   1 more example

   "We would wait a few minutes and the natives would start creeping out from their hiding places, their curiosity overcoming their fear of the 'manbirds' that swooped down from the skies. But now the Eskimos are used to the planes and are all anxious to take rides," Bennett says.

   1928, U.S. Air Services, volume 13, page 54