Empennage

The empennage (/ˌɑːmpᵻˈnɑːʒ/ or /ˈɛmpᵻnɪdʒ/), also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow; the term derives from the French for this. Most aircraft feature an empennage incorporating vertical and horizontal stabilising surfaces which stabilise the flight dynamics of yaw and pitch, as well as housing control surfaces.

In spite of effective control surfaces, many early aircraft that lacked a stabilising empennage were virtually unflyable. Even so-called "tailless aircraft" usually have a tail fin (vertical stabiliser). Heavier-than-air aircraft without any kind of empennage (such as the McDonnell Douglas X-36) are rare.

Structure

Structurally, the empennage consists of the entire tail assembly, including the tailfin, the tailplane and the part of the fuselage to which these are attached. On an airliner this would be all the flying and control surfaces behind the rear pressure bulkhead.

The front (usually fixed) section of the tailplane is called the tailplane or horizontal stabiliser and is used to provide pitch stability. The rear section is called the elevator, and is usually hinged to the horizontal stabiliser. The elevator is a movable aerofoil that controls changes in pitch, the up-and-down motion of the aircraft's nose. Some aircraft employ an all-moving stabiliser and elevators in one unit, known as a stabilator or "full-flying stabiliser".