flying truck
n.— «He now finds it a little bizarre to be piloting an old MI-17 Russian helicopter, a legacy of the Soviet invaders here, in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan.…The United States is training American pilots to fly the helicopters of the former Soviet Union—Colonel Brandon calls them “flying trucks.”» —“Facing Language Gaps and ’Flying Trucks,’ U.S. Trains Afghan Pilots” by Elisabeth Bumiller in Kabul, Afghanistan New York Times Feb. 27, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Trivia time! Where in the United States can you visit Soda City? If you answered Columbia, South Carolina, you’re right! This nickname apparently derives from an old practice of abbreviating Columbia as Cola. The locals then referred to the town as...
