Xem Studiomeasured geometry

Library › Aircraft design › Tail configurations ·

Tandem wing

What is a tandem-wing aircraft and how does it stay stable? · Standard part · basis: Design rules and figures from the cited sources; example geometry by Xem Studio

Also called: tandem wing aircraft, tandem wing rc, flying flea, pou du ciel, two wing in line aircraft, tandem wing stability, tandem wing drone, quickie tandem wing

Exact dimensions. True size, with no printing tolerance added.

sizes
4 in table

Notes

  • A tandem wing uses two lifting wings in line. The front wing gives pitch control and should stall first, which naturally limits angle of attack, comparable to a Rutan canard (Kitplanes, Flying Flea analysis).
  • The Mignet HM.14 Flying Flea suffered fatal tuck-under dives; Baynes argued c.g. positions 'farther aft than 40% chord of the forward wing' made it unstable, and the vertical c.g. position added nonlinearity (Kitplanes).
  • Once the c.g. was moved forward the rear wing carried little load; the Abbott-Baynes Cantilever Pou had a front wing almost twice the rear's area and was better seen as 'a monoplane with a large tail' (Kitplanes).
  • Used on: Mignet HM.14 Pou-du-Ciel (Flying Flea), Abbott-Baynes Cantilever Pou, Mignet HM.293.
  • 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.

Tandem wing size chart

parametervalue or rangesource
C.g. limit cited for the Fleanot aft of 40% chord of the forward wingKitplanes (Baynes)
Cantilever Pou front/rear wing areafront almost 2x rearKitplanes
Fatal Flea accidentsat least 7 (possibly 11)Kitplanes
Reference buildrear surface 300 x 60 mm at 500 mm (front wing is main wing)illustrative

Where the files are

Other publishers' files are linked, not hosted. "verify" = check the license at the link before commercial use.

Kitplanes (B. Wainfan)Wind Tunnel: More Flying Fleas (2017)webPublisher's page; dimensions are facts
NASA Langley (D. Satran)Wind-Tunnel Investigation of the Flight Characteristics of a Canard General-Aviation Airplane Configuration, NASA TP-2623 (1986)webPublisher'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

tandem-wing-tailcanard layout: horizontal span 600 × chord 100, vertical 120 × 90 mm on a 500 mm boom, NACA 0009 surfacesSTEP · STL
Let your AI pull this. Add 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.
Set it up →

Plain text: sheet.txt · JSON: /api/geometry?object=tandem-wing

Tandem wing, isometric render of a generated part
Render of tandem-wing-tail from the free STEP; not to scale.

Fits with

Tail volume coefficient (horizontal and vertical tail sizing), isometric render of a generated part
Tail volume coefficient (horizontal and vertical tail sizing)19 sizes★ 1 file
Tail moment arm (tail lever arm ratios), isometric render of a generated part
Tail moment arm (tail lever arm ratios)11 sizes★ 1 file
Conventional tail (low-mounted stabiliser and single fin), isometric render of a generated part
Conventional tail (low-mounted stabiliser and single fin)5 sizes★ 1 file
T-tail (stabiliser on top of the fin), isometric render of a generated part
T-tail (stabiliser on top of the fin)4 sizes★ 1 file
Cruciform tail (stabiliser part-way up the fin), isometric render of a generated part
Cruciform tail (stabiliser part-way up the fin)2 sizes★ 1 file
V-tail (butterfly tail with ruddervators), isometric render of a generated part
V-tail (butterfly tail with ruddervators)8 sizes★ 1 file

Questions

Where should the c.g. be on a tandem wing?

Forward enough that the front wing stalls first; Baynes put the Flea's limit at 40% of the front wing chord (Kitplanes).