Commercial Airplane Design Principles

6

Tail Design

Abstract

The function and characteristics of the tail surfaces are described and a simplified method for preliminary tail design is discussed. In a more detailed approach the stability and control surfaces of the proposed aircraft, the horizontal and vertical tails, are sized and positioned on the aircraft. A refined horizontal tail design is carried out including equilibrium conditions, trim and longitudinal static stability, stick-fixed neutral point, and stick-fixed static margin, culminating in an estimate of required horizontal tail area based on the stability requirements. In a similar fashion, a refined vertical tail design is carried out including equilibrium conditions, trim and lateral static stability requirements, ...