Grid fin
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Grid fins are a type of flight control surface used on rockets and bombs, sometimes in place of more conventional control surfaces, such as planar fins. They were developed in the 1950s by a team led
The Vympel NPO R-77 is a beyond-visual-range missile that uses grid fins. The gray KAB-500 OD guided bomb on the left of the image has conventional "planar" tail fins.
Closeup of MOAB grid fins
F6 Forlanini Airship grid fins
Initial design aluminum grid fins on the Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle, undeployed. February 2015.
GBU-43/B MOAB
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The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast is a large-yield bomb, developed for the United States military by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory. It was first tested in 2003. At
Grid fin
…conventional missiles and bombs such as the Vympel R-77 air-to-air missile; the 3M-54 Klub (SS-N-27 Sizzler) family of cruise missiles; and the American Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) large-yield conventional bomb, and on specialized devices such as the Quick-MEDS delivery system and as part of the launch escape system for the…
GBU-43/B on display at the Air Force Armament Museum, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Note the grid fins.
Al Weimorts (right), creator of the GBU-43/B MOAB, and Joseph Fellenz, lead model maker, look over the still unpainted prototype.