Flying Wing

Imagine an aircraft. So what’s the first image that appeared in your thought?. A oval shaped fuselage with a tail at its end. This seems to be a common response. Its time to change the way we think. Lets imagine a plane that doesn’t posses both fuselage and tail. Isn’t it hard to imagine such an aircraft? Aircraft can exist without both fuselage and vertical tail, they are known as flying wing.

Video Credits: Curious Droid

A tail-less fixed wing aircraft which does not have a definite fuselage is known as flying wing. The main wing structure itself holds crew, fuel and payload. Flying wing may posses small pods and nacelles. Can an aircraft be... controlled without a vertical tail? Will it be directionally stable? An aircraft can indeed be controlled without a vertical and also be stable. The stability is achieved by high sweep and a little calculated twist. This provides the required directional stability.

How can a flying wing yaw?

There are three mechanisms by which yaw can be generated on a flying wing

• By using split ailerons i.e. An aileron on one end is split into top surface and bottom surface
• By deploying spoilers on one side
• By using spoilerons. i.e. spoiler+aileron

Though a flying wing is capable of normal flight its preferred only for cruise missions and bombing, they aren’t efficient in turbulent or highly manoeuvrable environment.