helicopterful

English

Etymology

From helicopter +‎ -ful.

Noun

helicopterful (plural not attested)

1. Enough to fill a helicopter.
   • 1943 May 5, “Taxpayer Socked Again”, in Asbury Park Evening Press, fifty-seventh year, number 106, Asbury Park, N.J., page 8:

     While Sikorsky evidently didn’t discuss the matter, the shipment of farm crops probably will continue to be by truck or train, altho a helicopterful of cabbage flown to market today would pay off a fair-sized mortgage.

   • 1958, “Bugs’s Musical Globe-Hopper”, in Bugs Bunny’s Vacation Funnies‎^[1], number 8, New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.:

     Bugs has picked up a helicopterful of musical souvenirs on his harmonious hop around the globe.

   • 1972, Christian Cafarakis, Jacques Harvey, translated by John Minahan, The Fabulous Onassis: His Life and Loves, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →LCCN, back flap:

     And more: […] Ari the multimillionaire using Olympic Airways (which he owns) to pick up his shirts in Athens for the only laundry in the world privileged to wash them, and Ari the lover raining a helicopterful of red roses over Jackie Onassis’ house on their island of Skorpios.

   • 1978 August 26, Gaylord Shaw, “Albuquerque Plans Huge Welcome: Balloonists’ Hometown Walking on Air”, in Los Angeles Times, volume XCVII, page 7:

     How, officials worried, can they keep Albuquerque’s many other hometown ballonists^[sic] from staging an impromptu salute to their victorious colleagues by heading skyward—and possibly tangling with a helicopterful of confetti, the four military jets and the Spirit of St. Louis?

   • 1986, New Society‎^[2]:

     A wounded professional soldier blows up both himself and a helicopterful of generals.

   • 2000, Travel + Leisure, page 65:

     While smoothing on aromatherapeutic oils, she revealed that a guest had once flashed a helicopterful of arrivals.

   • 2018, Peter Bowen, Solus‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: Open Road Integrated Media, →ISBN:

     But then, I asked them nicely to be careful when I was so rudely interrupted by six Highway Patrol cars and a fucking helicopterful of SWAT guys.