T-tail
aircraft empennage configuration in which the horizontal plane is at or near the top of the vertical stabilizer
A T-tail is an empennage configuration in which the tailplane of an aircraft is mounted to the top of the fin. 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 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 nacelles 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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “T-tail” as aircraft empennage configuration in which the horizontal plane is at or near the top of the vertical stabilizer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as aircraft empennage configuration in which the horizontal plane is at or near the top of the vertical stabilizer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2414362. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “T-tail” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.