unrefuelledunrefueledadj.
/(ˌ)ʌnriːˈfjuːəld/, U.S. /ˌənriˈfju(ə)ld/ 1. Of a vehicle: not refuelled, esp. for the duration of a journey.
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1929 Pop. Mech. Mag. Apr. 609/2 It is planned to try first to break the duration record for unrefueled planes.
1950 Pop. Sci. Feb. 117/2 A bomber..refuelled once in mid air..can carry three times the weight of bombs over any given distance than an unrefuelled bomber can carry.
1999 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 20 Mar. a6 The 55-metre tall balloon..[has] flown longer unrefuelled than any other aircraft of any type in history.
2013 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 28 Feb. 5 Activists said the factory ship Nisshin Maru was still unrefuelled following damaging collisions between their vessels.
2. Of an action or process: not involving refuelling; characterized by an absence of refuelling. Also: designating a range or distance which is or can be travelled without refuelling, esp. in an aircraft.
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1949 Times of India 23 July 8 The U.S. Navy's famous [bomber] ‘Truculent Turtle’..holds the world's record for long distance unrefuelled flight (11, 236 miles).
1958 Flying Rev. Oct. 37/1 The B-52G employs a ‘wet’ integral-tank wing which substantially increases the bomber's unrefuelled range.
1990 Times 23 June 36/7 Hoverspeed Great Britain..looked last night to be still on schedule to break the 38-year-old record for an unrefuelled crossing of the Atlantic.
2004 9/11 Comm. Rep. (National Comm. Terrorist Attacks U.S.) iv. 135 The AC-130s would need bases because the aircraft's unrefueled range was only a little over 2,000 miles.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2014; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1929