I learned a new word earlier today as I was watching a short documentary on Queen Ingrid of Denmark. The reason I was watching this documentary was to glean more details about Queen Ingrid’s natural flair for speaking various languages fluently. Which, incidentally, would be worth looking into.
The word that caught my attention was landplane, which refers to the Armstrong Whitworth Argosy aircraft carrying Princess Ingrid on her visit to her grandfather, Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught back in 1932. Landplane is an unusual word to the ears of a 21st-century speaker. However, when put into context, one can quickly realize that seaplanes were quite commonplace in those days. Hence the distinction.
Today landplane can hardly be found in dictionaries and should not be confused with a land plane, as pictured below.
