Crossword clues for empennage
empennage
Wiktionary
n. 1 The tail assembly of an aircraft. 2 The feathers of an arrow or the tail fins of a bomb or rocket used to stabilize the longitudinal axis of the projectile parallel to the flight path.
WordNet
n. the rear part of an aircraft [syn: tail, tail assembly]
Wikipedia
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, provides stability for aircraft, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow. The term derives from the French language word empenner which means "to feather an arrow". 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 Northrop B-2) are rare.
Usage examples of "empennage".
He was coming up beneath its tail, and with luck the empennage would shield him from the rotating radar antenna.
If the hook can be strengthened, especially where it joins the empennage, I believe the plane will give a good account of itself.
She moved gingerly, trying to get her bearings, and realized she was sitting on the rear empennage of the ship.
His 180-ton rig rose thirty cents off the deck, slid out of its bay, and sashayed down the ramp, waving its empennage like a slightly tipsy iron dinosaur.
The aircraft metal on the empennage of the aircraft was rapidly stripped away.
Ridley watched as one of the boomerangs passed right through the empennage of the F-16 flown by Luftwaffe Captain Heinz Zwack, sacrificing itself to destroy the fighter.
Ridley ran his fingers across the empennage of the sleek composite aircraft in front of him and whistled.
Since neither Belvew nor Inger could see the white accumulation starting to grow on the leading edges of its wings, nose, and empennage shortly after the descent began, this made no real difference.
In the first brief glance I had of it, I saw fins forward below its median line, a long, longitudinal aileron (or so I judged it to be) running almost the full length of the ship, and strangely designed elevator and rudder as part of the empennage assembly.