payload

noun

1. the part of a cargo producing revenue or income, usually expressed in weight.
2. the number of paying passengers, as on an airplane.
3. Aerospace, Military.
   1. the bomb load, warhead, cargo, or passengers of an aircraft, a rocket, missile, etc., for delivery at a target or destination.
   2. the total complement of equipment carried by a spacecraft for the performance of a particular mission in space.
   3. the explosive energy of the warhead of a missile or of the bomb load of an aircraft: a payload of 50 megatons.

noun

1. that part of a cargo earning revenue
2. 1. the passengers, cargo, or bombs carried by an aircraft
   2. the equipment carried by a rocket, satellite, or spacecraft
3. the explosive power of a warhead, bomb, etc, carried by a missile or aircrafta missile carrying a 50-megaton payload

n.also pay-load, 1917, from pay + load (n.). Originally the part of a truck’s (later an aircraft’s) load from which revenue is derived (passengers, cargo, mail); figurative sense of “bombs, etc. carried by a plane or missile” is from 1936.