
A T-tail is an
empennage
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...
configuration
Configuration or configurations may refer to:
Computing
* Computer configuration or system configuration
* Configuration file, a software file used to configure the initial settings for a computer program
* Configurator, also known as choice board ...
in which the
tailplane
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters ...
of an
aircraft
An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...
is mounted to the top of the
fin
A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...
. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs from the standard configuration in which the tailplane is mounted to the
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...
at the base of the fin.
Advantages
T-tails were common in early jet aircraft. Designers were worried that an engine failure would otherwise damage the horizontal tail.
The T-tail is very common on aircraft with engines mounted in
nacelle
A nacelle ( ) is a streamlined container for aircraft parts such as Aircraft engine, engines, fuel or equipment. When attached entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached with a Hardpoint#Pylon, pylo ...
s on a
high-winged aircraft or on aircraft with the engines mounted on the rear of the fuselage, as it keeps the tail clear of the jet exhaust. Rear-mounting the engines keeps the wings clean and improves short-field performance. This was necessary in early jet aircraft with less powerful engines.
T-tail aircraft can have better short-field performance,
such as on the
Avro RJ-85. The disturbed airflow over a lower stabilizer can make control more difficult at lower speeds.
During normal flying conditions, the tailplane of a T-tail is out of the disturbed airflow behind the
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...
and fuselage,
which provides for more consistent elevator response.
The design and structure of a T-tail can be simpler.
For a
transsonic aircraft a T-tail configuration may improve pitch control effectiveness, because the elevator is not in disturbed air behind the fuselage, particularly at moderate angles of attack.
Depending on wing location, the elevator may remain in undisturbed airflow during a
stall. (However, T-tail aircraft may be vulnerable to
deep stall, see
Disadvantages below.)
An aircraft with a T-tail may be easier to recover from a
spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles
* Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
, as the elevator is not in a position to block airflow over the rudder, which would make it ineffective, as can happen if the horizontal tail is directly below the fin and rudder.
The T-tail increases the effectiveness of the vertical tail because of "end plate" effect. The horizontal stabilizer acts like a winglet, reducing
induced drag
Lift-induced drag, induced drag, vortex drag, or sometimes drag due to lift, in aerodynamics, is an aerodynamic drag force that occurs whenever a moving object redirects the airflow coming at it. This drag force occurs in airplanes due to wings or ...
of the rudder.
[Hoerner and Borst, ''Fluid Dynamic Lift'', Directional Characteristics, T-tail page 13-11] Smaller and lighter T-tails are often used on modern gliders.
When the vertical tail is swept, the horizontal tail can be made smaller because it is further rearwards and therefore has a greater lever arm. Tail sweep may be necessary at high Mach numbers.
A T-tail may have less interference drag, such as on the
Tupolev Tu-154
The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...
.
T-tails may be used to increase clearance at the rear of a cargo aircraft such as the
Boeing C-17 Globemaster, to provide extra clearance when loading the aircraft.
T-tails decrease the possibility of anything hitting the empennage on paratroops or airdrops operations, as the tail is way above the jump door.
Disadvantages
The aircraft may be prone to
deep stall (or super stall) at high
angles of attack, when airflow over the tailplane and elevators is blanked by the wings.
The American
McDonnell F-101 Voodoo
The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo is a Supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet fighter designed and produced by the American McDonnell Aircraft Corporation.
Development of the F-101 began in the late 1940s as a long-range bomber escort (then known as a ...
jet fighter suffered from this problem, as did the British
Gloster Javelin
The Gloster Javelin is a twin-engined all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the Gloster Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s and was the final aircraft design to b ...
,
Hawker Siddeley Trident
The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident (originally the de Havilland DH.121 and briefly the Airco DH.121) is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley.
In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (BEA ...
and
BAC One-Eleven
The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...
. A stick-pusher can be fitted to deal with this problem.
For propeller aircraft, a T-tail configuration may reduce pitch control effectiveness if the elevators are outside the propeller slipstream.
The vertical stabilizer must be made stronger (and therefore heavier) to support the weight of the tailplane. (However other factors may make the T-tail smaller and lighter, see
Advantages above.)
A T-tail produces a strong nose-down pitching moment in sideslip.
T-tails can cause
aeroelastic flutter
Aeroelasticity is the branch of physics and engineering studying the interactions between the inertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces occurring while an elastic body is exposed to a fluid flow. The study of aeroelasticity may be broadly classi ...
, as seen on the
Lockheed C-141 Starlifter
The Lockheed C-141 Starlifter is a retired military strategic airlifter that served with the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), its successor organization the Military Airlift Command (MAC), and finally the Air Mobility Command (AMC) of the ...
. The fuselage must be made stiffer to counteract this.
Many large aircraft can have the fin and rudder fold to reduce height in hangars, however this generally isn't feasible or useful if there is a T-tail.

The T-tail configuration can also cause maintenance problems. The control runs to the elevators are more complex, and the surfaces are more difficult to inspect from the ground. The loss of
Alaska Airlines Flight 261
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Washi ...
was attributed to improper maintenance of the T-tail. T-tails can be harder to inspect or maintain, due to their height.
Adoption
The T-tail can often be found on military transport aircraft, such as the
Airbus A400M
The Airbus A400M AtlasNamed after the Atlas (mythology), Greek mythological figure. is a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a tactical airlifter with ...
, the
Boeing C-17 Globemaster III
The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previ ...
and the
Embraer C-390 Millenium. It was used in the 1950s by combat aircraft such as the
Gloster Javelin
The Gloster Javelin is a twin-engined all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the Gloster Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s and was the final aircraft design to b ...
,
McDonnell F-101 Voodoo
The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo is a Supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet fighter designed and produced by the American McDonnell Aircraft Corporation.
Development of the F-101 began in the late 1940s as a long-range bomber escort (then known as a ...
, and
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the " Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an ...
interceptors
An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are cap ...
, and on the
Blackburn Buccaneer
The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British aircraft carrier, carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy (RN). Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough Aerodrome, Brough, it was later officially k ...
attack aircraft
An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pr ...
.
T-tails are often used on regional airliners and business aircraft, especially when rear-fuselage-mounted turbofan engines are used.
In the 1960s, T-tails were used on the
BAC One-Eleven
The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...
,
Vickers VC10
The Vickers VC10 is a retired mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The VC10 is often compared to the larger Soviet Ily ...
,
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast, single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell ...
,
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...
,
Fokker F28 Fellowship
The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a twin-engined, short-range jet airliner designed and built by Netherlands, Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker.
Following the Fokker F27 Friendship, an early and commercially successful turboprop-powered regional air ...
,
Ilyushin Il-62
The Ilyushin Il-62 (; NATO reporting name: Classic) is a Soviet Union, Soviet long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body jetliner conceived in 1960 by Ilyushin. As a successor to the popular turboprop Ilyushin Il-18, Il-18 and with capacit ...
and
Tupolev Tu-154
The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...
. It has been used by the
Gulfstream
The Gulf Stream is a warm Atlantic Ocean current.
Gulf Stream or Gulfstream may also refer to:
Businesses
*Gulf Stream Hotel, an historic hotel in Lake Worth Beach, Florida
*Gulfstream Aerospace, manufacturer of private jet aircraft
*Gulfstream C ...
family since the
Grumman Gulfstream II
The Gulfstream II (G-II) is an American twin engine business jet designed and first built by Grumman, then Grumman American and finally Gulfstream American. It was succeeded by the Gulfstream III. The first Gulfstream II flew on October 2, 1966 ...
. It has been used by the
Learjet
Learjet was a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use based in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation, it became a subsidiary of Canadian Bomba ...
family since their first aircraft, the
Learjet 23
The Learjet 23 (originally Lear Jet 23) is an American six-to-eight-seat (two crew and four to six passengers) twinjet, high-speed business jet manufactured by Learjet. Introduced in 1964, it was Learjet's first model and created a new market ...
. It has also been used by the Embraer's
Phenom 100
The Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 is a very light jet, very light (VLJ) business jet designed and produced by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer.
Announced in November 2005, it made its first flight on 26 July 2007 and was awarded a type c ...
,
Phenom 300 and
Legacy/Praetor business jet families.
In the 1970s it was used on the
McDonnell Douglas MD-80
The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gener ...
and
Ilyushin Il-76
The Ilyushin Il-76 (; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau as a commercial freighter in 1967, to replace the Antonov An-1 ...
, as well as the twin turboprop
Beechcraft Super King Air
The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketing, marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was droppe ...
. In the 1980s it was used on the
Fokker 100
The Fokker 100 is a regional jet that was produced by Fokker in the Netherlands.
The Fokker 100 was based on the Fokker F28 with a fuselage stretched by to seat up to 109 passengers, up from 85.
It is powered by two newer Rolls-Royce Tay tur ...
and the
British Aerospace 146
The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is a short-haul and regional airliner that was manufactured in the United Kingdom by British Aerospace, later part of BAE Systems. Production ran from 1983 until 2001. Avro International Aerospace manufa ...
.
In the 1990s it was used on the
Boeing 717
The Boeing 717 is an American five-abreast narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The Twinjet, twin-engine airliner was developed for the 100-seat market and originally marketed by McDonnell Dougla ...
,
Bombardier CRJ-Series,
Embraer ERJ family,
Fokker 70
The Fokker 70 is a narrow-body, twin-engined, medium-range, turbofan regional airliner designed and produced by the now defunct Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker.
It was developed during the early 1990s as a smaller version of the newly-dev ...
and
McDonnell Douglas MD-90
The McDonnell Douglas (later Boeing) MD-90 is a retired American five-abreast single-aisle airliner developed by McDonnell Douglas from its successful model MD-80. The airliner was produced by the developer company until 1997 and then by Boei ...
, as well as the single turboprop
Pilatus PC-12
The Pilatus PC-12 is a pressurized, single-engined, turboprop aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland since 1991. It was designed as a high-performance utility aircraft that incorporates a large aft cargo door in addi ...
.
T-tail is especially popular on modern
gliders because of the high performance, the safety it provides from accidental spins, and the safety it provides the stabilizer and elevator from foreign object damage on take-off and landing.
See also
*
Cruciform tail
The cruciform tail is an aircraft empennage configuration which, when viewed from the aircraft's front or rear, looks much like a cross. The usual arrangement is to have the tailplane, horizontal stabilizer intersect the vertical tail somewhere ...
*
Pelikan tail
*
Twin tail
A twin tail is a type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircraft's ho ...
*
V-tail
The V-tail or ''vee-tail'' (sometimes called a butterfly tail or Rudlicki's V-tailGudmundsson S. (2013). "General Aviation Aircraft Design: Applied Methods and Procedures" (Reprint). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 489. , 9780123973290) of an aircraf ...
*
Hans Multhopp
Hans Multhopp (17 May 1913 – 30 October 1972) was a German aeronautical engineer/designer. Receiving a degree from the University of Göttingen, Multhopp worked with the famous designer Kurt Tank at the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG during Worl ...
, a pioneer user of the T-Tail concept near World War II's end
References
Further reading
*
{{Aircraft components
Aircraft aerodynamics
Aircraft tail configurations