"build the plane while flying it" meaning in English

See build the plane while flying it in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: builds the plane while flying it [present, singular, third-person], building the plane while flying it [participle, present], built the plane while flying it [participle, past], built the plane while flying it [past], build the plane while flying [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-verb|build<,,built> the plane while flying it}} build the plane while flying it (third-person singular simple present builds the plane while flying it, present participle building the plane while flying it, simple past and past participle built the plane while flying it)
  1. (idiomatic) To develop one's approach or strategy to a project while carrying out that project, and not beforehand. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-build_the_plane_while_flying_it-en-verb-Us-gR9un Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms with placeholder "it", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "builds the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "building the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "build the plane while flying",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "build<,,built> the plane while flying it"
      },
      "expansion": "build the plane while flying it (third-person singular simple present builds the plane while flying it, present participle building the plane while flying it, simple past and past participle built the plane while flying it)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To develop one's approach or strategy to a project while carrying out that project, and not beforehand."
      ],
      "id": "en-build_the_plane_while_flying_it-en-verb-Us-gR9un",
      "links": [
        [
          "develop",
          "develop"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "strategy",
          "strategy"
        ],
        [
          "project",
          "project"
        ],
        [
          "beforehand",
          "beforehand"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To develop one's approach or strategy to a project while carrying out that project, and not beforehand."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "build the plane while flying it"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "builds the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "building the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built the plane while flying it",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "build the plane while flying",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "build<,,built> the plane while flying it"
      },
      "expansion": "build the plane while flying it (third-person singular simple present builds the plane while flying it, present participle building the plane while flying it, simple past and past participle built the plane while flying it)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To develop one's approach or strategy to a project while carrying out that project, and not beforehand."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "develop",
          "develop"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "strategy",
          "strategy"
        ],
        [
          "project",
          "project"
        ],
        [
          "beforehand",
          "beforehand"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To develop one's approach or strategy to a project while carrying out that project, and not beforehand."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "build the plane while flying it"
}

Download raw JSONL data for build the plane while flying it meaning in English (1.5kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (5ee713e and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.