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A bewildering variety of planes from Henri Farman, Louis-Charles Bréguet, Pierre Latécoère, and others equipped domestic and international airlines. By the ...
dense
One of the earliest airline organizations, a British group called Air Transport and Travel, Ltd., acquired several Airco D.H.4a VIII single-engine planes (designed by Geoffrey De Havilland), powered by 350-horsepower Eagle V-type engines from Rolls-Royce Ltd., and modified them to include an enclosed cramped space in the fuselage with room for two adventurous passengers. The pilot’s cockpit, atop the fuselage, remained open. The company’s inaugural flight occurred on Aug. 25, 1919, when the plane flew from London to Paris with its sole passenger, an enterprising newspaper reporter. The service caught on and competitors soon followed. Handley Page Transport, Ltd., made use of the manufacturing company’s wartime twin-engine bombers, converting them to haul up to 14 passengers, who lounged in comfortable wicker chairs. These slow but roomy aircraft established a tradition of ornately embellished interiors and spacious surroundings—at the sacrifice of aerodynamic efficiency and high speeds—on early European airlines. Given the lack of navigational aids and the primitive instrumentation of the era, accidents invariably occurred, and passengers became used to delays caused by the notoriously foul winter weather in England. Pilots had to depend on luck and quick thinking when they were caught in unexpected atmospheric conditions. Approaching London in the fog, one British pilot suddenly realized he had drifted too close to the ground when a church steeple loomed out of the mist at his eye level. Fortunately, he noticed that express trains speeding toward London left a visible furrow in the <anchor>dense</anchor> fog bank, and he gratefully followed this phenomenon into the city, where he found improved conditions for landing. By 1924, with government support, independent airlines in Britain had consolidated into one entity, Imperial Airways Ltd., as a means to compete with the heavily subsidized French airlines in Europe.
Dense Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary
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# dense

1 ENTRIES FOUND:

dense /ˈdɛns/adjective

denser;densest

dense

/ˈdɛns/

adjective

denser;densest

Britannica Dictionary definition of DENSE

[or more dense; most dense]

1

:having parts that are close together

- They cut a path through the dense jungle.

- dense undergrowth

- The book's pages were dense [= packed, filled] with helpful ideas.

- the cat's dense [= thick] coat of fur

- a dense tangle of wires

- heavy, dense bread

- a dense cluster of stars

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2

:crowded with people

- That part of the city has a dense population of immigrants.

- A dense mass of spectators filled the courtroom.

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3

informal:not smart:not able to understand things easily

- I'm sorry to be so dense [= slow-witted, stupid, dumb] this morning.

- In the movie, she plays his kind but somewhat dense aunt.

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4

:difficult to see through

- We drove though dense [= thick] fog/smoke.

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5

:difficult to understand

especially:hard to read

- The book's technical subject and dense prose will discourage many readers.

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6

technical:heavier than most things of the same size

- a dense substance like lead or mercury

- a disease that causes bones to become less dense [=to become less solid and heavy]

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## — densely

adverb

- a densely populated area [=an area in which many people live]

- densely forested mountains

- a densely packed sports arena

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## — denseness

noun[noncount]

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