Definition
The state of an aircraft once it has lifted off the runway or surface and is no longer in contact with the ground. In ATC and operational use, an aircraft is considered airborne the moment its wheels (or floats, or skids) leave the surface during takeoff.
Plain English
Off the ground and flying. The instant the wheels leave the runway, the aircraft is airborne.
Context Anchor
You will see this word in takeoff, landing, traffic, and radio communication contexts when describing whether an aircraft is flying or still on the ground.
Derivation
From "air" + "borne" (carried). Literally, "carried by the air." The word makes the meaning easy to remember: the air is now holding the aircraft up, not the ground.
Why Pilots Care
The airborne time is often reported to ATC or recorded in flight logs and flight plans. It marks the official start of flight time and is used for separation, sequencing, and search-and-rescue timing if a flight goes overdue.
Intuition Check
Airborne does not simply mean “located in the air” in a loose sense. For an aircraft, it means the aircraft has lifted off and is actually flying, not just moving along the runway.
Example Sentence 1
The tower controller noted the time the Cessna became airborne so the departure could be sequenced with following traffic.
Example Sentence 2
Flight time begins the moment the aircraft becomes airborne and ends when it touches down at the destination.