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Conventional tail (low-mounted stabiliser and single fin)
What is a conventional aircraft tail and why is it the default? · Standard part · basis: Design rules and figures from the cited sources; example geometry by Xem Studio
Also called: conventional tail, standard aircraft tail, low tail, conventional empennage, rc plane tail design, horizontal stabilizer and vertical fin, normal tail configuration, airplane tail types, conventional tail vs t-tail, low mounted stabilizer
Exact dimensions. True size, with no printing tolerance added.
- sizes
- 5 in table
Notes
- A conventional tail mounts the horizontal stabiliser low on the fuselage with a single fin above it; Arnedo calls it structurally compact and aerodynamically efficient, the standard for aircraft with under-wing engines.
- It is easy and cheap to build and hard to stall, but it sits in the wing's downwash and the propeller slipstream (Bhattacharya et al.; Kitplanes). On single-engine tractor aircraft the slipstream over a low tail helps raise the nosewheel, which a T-tail loses (Kitplanes T-Tails).
- Size it with the tail volume coefficient: Raymer-type tables give Vh 0.50/Vv 0.04 for homebuilts and 0.70/0.04 for GA singles (HAW Hamburg Table 2.1).
- Used on: Cessna 172, Beechcraft A36 Bonanza, Boeing 777, Airbus A320, Piper Cherokee Six (PA-32).
- The file is a reference example built by Xem Studio from the numbers above. Sizes the sources do not fix are illustrative; scale the example to your own vehicle.
Conventional tail size chart
| parameter | value or range | source |
|---|---|---|
| Homebuilt Vh / Vv | 0.50 / 0.04 | HAW Hamburg Table 2.1 |
| GA single Vh / Vv | 0.70 / 0.04 | HAW Hamburg Table 2.1 |
| Horizontal vs vertical tail arm | horizontal about 5% longer | Scholz 2021 |
| Piper J-3 Sh/Sw, Sv/Sw | 13.7%, 5.7% | EAA62 (Pazmany) |
| Reference build | Sh 40,000 mm^2 (400 x 100), Sv 16,000 mm^2 (140 x 114), arm 500 mm on a 1000 x 200 mm wing | computed (Vh 0.50, Vv 0.04) |
Where the files are
Other publishers' files are linked, not hosted. "verify" = check the license at the link before commercial use.
| LibreTexts (Arnedo, Fundamentals of Aerospace Engineering) | 2.2.3 Empennage | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
| engrXiv (Bhattacharya et al., ICMMM 2023) | Design and Computational Analysis of Y-tail Configuration for Maritime UAV | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
| Kitplanes (B. Wainfan) | Design Process: T-Tails (2022) | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
| HAW Hamburg (Aircraft Design and Systems Group) | Empennage sizing: tail lever arm as % of fuselage length (thesis; Table 2.1 typical tail volume coefficients) | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
| INCAS Bulletin / HAW Hamburg (D. Scholz) | Empennage sizing with the tail volume complemented with a method for dorsal fin layout (2021) | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
| EAA Chapter 62 (Stan Hall, from Pazmany 'Light Airplane Design') | How Big The Tail | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
Free files
★ Free files 1 parts. Xem Studio design: free to use, print and sell things from; not to be republished as files. Xem Studio Design License. index.json
| conventional-tail-tail | conventional layout: horizontal span 400 × chord 100, vertical 140 × 114 mm on a 500 mm boom, NACA 0009 surfaces | STEP · STL |
https://xemstudio.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (free, no account, one minute) and it can look up exact sizes, mating fits and free STEP/STL from every chat.Plain text: sheet.txt · JSON: /api/geometry?object=conventional-tail
Fits with
Questions
Is a conventional tail better than a T-tail?
It is lighter and avoids T-tail deep stall, but it sits in wing downwash and propwash (Arnedo; Kitplanes T-Tails).