The empennage, also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow. The term derives from the French language verb 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.
The empennage of an Atlas Air Boeing 747-200
SpaceShipOne at the US National Air and Space Museum
The DH108 Swallow
Aircraft flight control surfaces are aerodynamic devices allowing a pilot to adjust and control the aircraft's flight attitude.
KLM Fokker 70, showing position of flap and liftdumper flight controls. The liftdumpers are the lifted cream-coloured panels on the wing upper surface (in this picture there are five on the right wing). The flaps are the large drooped surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing.
Wing trailing edge flight control surfaces of a Boeing 747-8. Top left: All surfaces at neutral position; Top middle: Right aileron is lowered; Top right: spoilers raised during flight; Middle row: Fowler flaps extended (left), extended more (middle), hinged with inboard slotted part hinged even more (right); Bottom row: spoilers raised during landing
Air brakes on the rear fuselage of a Eurowings BAe 146-300
Mass balance protruding from an aileron used to suppress flutter