Definition

Noun: - An aircraft with a history of frequent or excessive maintenance needs, often spending more time undergoing repairs in a hangar than being operational for flight. This term specifically refers to an airplane that has a documented record of poor reliability or numerous mechanical issues, requiring constant attention from maintenance crews and thus being figuratively "queen" of the hangar due to its persistent presence there.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The old cargo plane became a hangar queen, constantly needing parts that were hard to find.
  • Pilots tried to avoid being assigned the hangar queen, knowing it was prone to last-minute mechanical delays.

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used informally and somewhat pejoratively within aviation communities (e.g., among pilots, mechanics, and operators) to describe a problematic aircraft.
• It can imply that the aircraft is a drain on resources, both in terms of time and money, due to its persistent maintenance requirements.
• While most commonly applied to airplanes, the concept can be metaphorically extended to other complex vehicles or machinery (like helicopters or ships) that are frequently out of service for repairs, though the core term remains specific to aviation.

Variants and Related Words

• Hangar (n): A large building for housing and maintaining aircraft.
• Queen (n): In this idiomatic compound, it denotes something that dominates or reigns over a particular domain (the hangar).

Synonyms

• Maintenance hog: (Informal) A vehicle or machine that requires an unusually high amount of maintenance.
• Hangar-bound aircraft: A more formal descriptive phrase for an aircraft that is often not airworthy.
• Problem plane: A simple, direct synonym.

Related Idioms & Phrases

• To be a hangar queen: This is the primary idiomatic usage, functioning as a predicate noun.
  • That vintage jet is beautiful, but it's turned into a real hangar queen.
• While not a phrasal verb, the term itself is a fixed noun phrase with a specific idiomatic meaning in aviation jargon.

Noun

1. an airplane with a bad maintenance record