A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium. On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to co
Modern ship rudder (the tall red rectangle behind the propeller)
RMS Olympic's rudder turned
Stern-mounted steering oar of an Egyptian riverboat depicted in the Tomb of Menna (c. 1422–1411 BC)
Steering oar of a Roman boat, 1st century AD (RG-Museum, Cologne)
Flight control surfaces are aerodynamic devices allowing a pilot to adjust and control the aircraft's flight attitude. The primary function of these is to control the aircraft's movement along the thr
Rudder
…employs four hydraulic rams to rotate the rudder stock (rotation axis), in turn rotating the rudder. On an aircraft, a rudder is one of three directional control surfaces, along with the rudder-like elevator (usually attached to the horizontal tail structure, if not a slab elevator) and ailerons (attached to the wings…
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