The payload of an aircraft or spacecraft is the amount or weight of things or people that it is carrying.
[technical]
With these very large passenger payloads, one question looms above all others – safety.
2. variable noun
The payload of a missile or similar weapon is the quantity of explosives it contains.
[military]
...a gun capable of delivering substantial payloads.
payload in British English
(ˈpeɪˌləʊd)
noun
1.
that part of a cargo earning revenue
2.
a.
the passengers, cargo, or bombs carried by an aircraft
b.
the equipment carried by a rocket, satellite, or spacecraft
3.
the explosive power of a warhead, bomb, etc, carried by a missile or aircraft
a missile carrying a 50-megaton payload
payload in American English
(ˈpeɪˌloʊd)
noun
1.
a cargo, or the part of a cargo, producing income
2.
a.
a load that consists of anything carried by an aircraft, rocket, etc. that is not essential to its flight operations, including warheads, spacecraft, or passengers
b.
the weight of such a load
Examples of 'payload' in a sentence
payload
In the payload section were the crates that Skorpion had been waiting for.
Brierley, David SKORPION'S DEATH (2001)
But it could still pack in a handy payload and had an effective range of, say, twelve hundred kilometres.