A non-buoyant aircraft that requires a source of power to hold it aloft and to propel it(noun)
WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.
Use "heavier-than-air craft" in a sentence
"More than sixty years before Embraer was created and barely three years after the first flight by the Wright brothers, a Brazilian, Santos Dumont, had designed and flown the first self-propelled, heavier-than-air craft in Paris."