hangar queen

hangar queen

1. An aircraft that spends more time being serviced or requiring maintenance than it does flying. The new stealth jet was a promising addition to the Air Force's fleet, but due to its frequent breakdowns, it has proved to be more of a hangar queen than a useful plane.
2. An airplane that is permanently grounded so that its parts may be used to repair other aircraft. I loved my first plane, but as I began buying more, it became a mere hangar queen to replace the parts of the newer ones.
See also: queen
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • pifflicated
  • knight of the road
  • barfly
  • a talking shop
  • blister
  • blisterfoot
  • a labour of love
  • labor of love
  • labor of love, a
  • double-dome
References in periodicals archive
At the beginning of our shift one day, we got a call that DCAG was flying around the boat because the fuel dump was inop on aircraft 603--the "hangar queen" we had robbed to get the replacement panel.
Dumping problems on someone else
Before long, we had taken two helicopters that once were ugly shells and looked like hangar queens, and had turned them into something that more resembled high-performance fighting machines.
Instilling a sense of ownership and insisting on by-the-book maintenance became the standard, and that approach turned two hangar queens into productive fleet assets.
Turning a bucket of bolts into beauty