Fixed-wing aircraft

Fixed-wing aircraft

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...

, popularly called aeroplanes, airplanes or just planes may be built with many wing configurations.

This page provides a breakdown of types, allowing a full description of any aircraft's wing configuration. For example the Spitfire

Supermarine Spitfire

The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...

 wing may be classified as a conventional low wing cantilever monoplane with straight elliptical wings of moderate aspect ratio and slight dihedral.

Sometimes the distinction between types is blurred, for example the wings of many modern combat aircraft may be described either as cropped compound deltas with (forwards or backwards) swept trailing edge, or as sharply tapered swept wings with large "Leading Edge Root Extension

Leading edge extension

A leading edge extension is a small extension to an aircraft wing surface, forward of the leading edge. Different kinds of extensions have been used for different reasons.-Leading edge slats:...

" (or LERX).

All the configurations described have flown (if only very briefly) on full-size aircraft, except as noted.

Some variants may be duplicated under more than one heading, due to their complex nature. This is particularly so for variable geometry and combined (closed) wing types.

Number and position of main-planes

Fixed-wing aircraft can have different numbers of wings:

• Monoplane
  Monoplane
  A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
  
  - one wing. Most aeroplanes have been monoplanes since before the Second World War. The wing may be mounted at various heights relative to the fuselage
  Fuselage
  The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
  
  :
  • Low wing - mounted on the lower fuselage.
  • Mid wing - mounted approximately half way up the fuselage.
  • Shoulder wing
    Shoulder wing
    A shoulder wing is a monoplane aircraft wing configuration in which the wing is mounted near the top of the fuselage, but not on the top....
    
    - mounted on the upper part or "shoulder" of the fuselage, either flush with or slightly below the top of the fuselage. Sometimes treated as as distinct from the high wing, and sometimes described as a high wing where it may be regarded as a sub-type.
  • High wing - mounted on the upper fuselage. When contrasted to the shoulder wing, applies to a wing projecting slightly above the top of the fuselage.
  • Parasol wing
    Parasol wing
    A parasol wing monoplane is an aircraft design in which the wing is not mounted directly to the fuselage, but rather, the fuselage is supported beneath it by a set of struts, called cabane struts...
    
    - mounted on "cabane" struts above the fuselage.

Low wing

Mid wing

Shoulder wing

High wing

Parasol wing

A fixed wing aircraft may have more than one wing plane, stacked one above another:

• Biplane
  Biplane
  A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
  
  - two planes of approximately equal size, stacked one above the other. The most common type until the 1930s, when the cantilever monoplane took over. The very first aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer I was a biplane, and the configuration remained dominant for three decades.
  • Unequal-span bibplane - a variant on the biplane in which one wing (usually the lower) is shorter than the other. The Curtiss JN-4
    Curtiss JN-4
    The Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" was one of a series of "JN" biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for the U.S...
    
     "Jenny" was widely produced during and after the First World War.
  • Sesquiplane - literally "one-and-a-half planes" is a variant on the biplane in which the lower wing is significantly smaller than the upper wing, both in span and in chord. The Nieuport 17
    Nieuport 17
    |-Specifications :-See also:-Bibliography:* Bruce, Jack. "Those Classic Nieuports". Air Enthusiast Quarterly. Number Two, 1976. Bromley, UK:Pilot Press. pp. 137–153....
    
     of WWI was notably successful.
  • Inverted sesquiplane - has a significantly smaller upper wing. The Fiat CR.1
    Fiat CR.1
    |-See also:-External links:*...
    
     was in production for many years.

Biplane

Unequal-span biplane

Sesquiplane

Inverted sesquiplane

• Triplane
  Triplane
  A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically-stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they may occasionally be.-Design principles:...
  
  - three planes stacked one above another. Triplanes such as the Fokker Dr.I
  Fokker Dr.I
  The Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr.I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918...
  
   enjoyed a brief period of popularity during the First World War due to their small size and high manoeuvrability as fighters, but were soon replaced by improved biplanes.

• Quadruplane
  Multiplane (aeronautics)
  In aviation, a multiplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration featuring multiple wing planes. The wing planes may be stacked one above another, or one behind another, or both in combination....
  
  - four planes stacked one above another. A small number of the Armstrong Whitworth F.K.10
  Armstrong Whitworth F.K.10
  -See also:-External links:...
  
   were built in the First World War but it never saw operational military service.

• Multiplane
  Multiplane (aeronautics)
  In aviation, a multiplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration featuring multiple wing planes. The wing planes may be stacked one above another, or one behind another, or both in combination....
  
  - many planes, sometimes used to mean more than one or more than some arbitrary number. The term is occasionally applied to arrangements stacked in tandem as well as vertically. The 1907 Multiplane of Horatio Frederick Phillips
  Horatio Frederick Phillips
  Horatio Frederick Phillips was an early aviation pioneer from the United Kingdom. He was famous for building multiplane flying machines with many more sets of lifting surfaces than would be normal on modern aircraft...
  
   flew successfully with 200 wing foils, while the nine-wing Caproni Ca.60
  Caproni Ca.60
  |-Video:A Mammoth of the Air, a 1921 silent film of the Ca.60, can be seen at -External links:*...
  
   flying boat was airborne briefly before crashing.

Triplane

Quadruplane

Multiplane

A staggered design has the upper wing slightly forward of the lower. Long thought to reduce the interference caused by the low pressure air over the lower wing mixing with the high pressure air under the upper wing however the improvement is minimal and its primary benefit is to improve access to the fuselage. It is common on many successful biplanes and triplanes. Backwards stagger is also seen in a few examples such as the Beechcraft Staggerwing

Beechcraft Staggerwing

The Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing is an American biplane with an atypical negative stagger , that first flew in 1932.-Development:...

.

Unstaggered biplane

Forwards stagger

Backwards stagger

A Tandem wing

Tandem wing

thumb|right|QAC Quickie Q2A tandem wing aircraft usually involves two full-sized wings, both of which are full airfoils. Sometimes an aircraft of this configuration can look like a variation on the biplane, but is in fact very different. The forward wing is often technically a canard, fitted with...

design has two similar-sized wings, one behind the other - see Horizontal stabiliser below. Some early types had tandem stacks of multiple planes - see the article on multiplanes

Multiplane (aeronautics)

In aviation, a multiplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration featuring multiple wing planes. The wing planes may be stacked one above another, or one behind another, or both in combination....

.

Wing support

To support itself a wing has to be rigid and strong and consequently may be heavy. By adding external bracing, the weight can be greatly reduced. Originally such bracing was always present, but it causes a large amount of drag at higher speeds and has not been used for faster designs since the early 1930s.

The types are:

• Cantilevered - self-supporting. All the structure is buried under the aerodynamic skin, giving a clean appearance with low drag.
• Braced: the wings are supported by external structural members. Nearly all multi-plane designs are braced. Some monoplanes, especially early designs such as the Fokker Eindecker
  Fokker Eindecker
  The Fokker Eindecker was a German World War I monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft designed by Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker. Developed in April 1915, the Eindecker was the first purpose-built German fighter aircraft and the first aircraft to be fitted with synchronizer gear, enabling the pilot...
  
  , are also braced to save weight. Braced wings are of two types:
  • Strut braced - one or more stiff struts help to support the wing. A strut may act in compression or tension at different points in the flight regime.
  • Wire braced - alone (as on the Boeing P-26 Peashooter) or, more usually, in addition to struts, tension wires also help to support the wing. Unlike a strut, a wire can act only in tension.

Cantilever

Strut braced

Wire braced

A braced multiplane may have one or more "bays", which are the compartments created by adding interplane struts; the number of bays refers to one side of the aircraft's wing panels only. For example, the de Havilland Tiger Moth

De Havilland Tiger Moth

The de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and was operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk in 1952, when many of the surplus aircraft...

 is a single-bay biplane where the Bristol F.2 Fighter

Bristol F.2 Fighter

The Bristol F.2 Fighter was a British two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War flown by the Royal Flying Corps. It is often simply called the Bristol Fighter or popularly the "Brisfit" or "Biff". Despite being a two-seater, the F.2B proved to be an agile aircraft...

 is a two-bay biplane.

Single-bay biplane

Two-bay biplane

• Combined or closed wing
  Closed wing
  A closed wing is a non-planar wing planform concept. The term closed wing encompasses a number of designs, including the annular wing , the joined wing, and the box wing...
  
  - two wings are joined structurally at or near the tips in some way. This stiffens the structure, and can reduce aerodynamic losses at the tips. Variants include:
  • Box wing - upper and lower planes are joined by a vertical fin between their tips. Some Dunne biplanes
    John William Dunne
    John William Dunne FRAeS was an Anglo-Irish aeronautical engineer and author. In the field of parapsychology, he achieved a preeminence through his theories on dreams and authoring books preoccupied with the question of the nature of time...
    
     were of this type. Tandem box wings have also been studied (see Joined wing description below).
  • Rhomboidal wing - a tandem layout in which the front wing sweeps back and the rear wing sweeps forwards such that they join at or near the tips to form a continuous surface in a hollow diamond shape. The Edwards Rhomboidal biplane of 1909 failed to fly. The design has recently seen a revival of interest where it is referred to as a joined wing . The Small Diameter Bomb
    Small Diameter Bomb
    The GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb is a 250 pound guided bomb that is intended to provide aircraft with the ability to carry a higher number of bombs...
    
    , a smart guided bomb, has a rhomboidal wing.
  • Annular or ring wing - may refer to various types:
    • Flat - the wing is shaped like a circular disc with a hole in it. A Lee-Richards type was one of the first stable aircraft to fly, shortly before the First World War. http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=Lee%20Richards%20Annular&distinct_entry=true
    • Cylindrical - the wing is shaped like a cylinder. The Coléoptère
      SNECMA Coléoptère
      The SNECMA Coléoptère was a VTO aircraft developed by the French in the 1950s. It was a single-person aircraft with an annular wing designed to land vertically, therefore requiring no runway and very little space to take-off. There were several prototypes developed and tested, however the design...
      
       had concentric wing and fuselage. It took off and landed vertically, but never achieved transition to horizontal flight. Examples with the wing mounted on top of the fuselage have been proposed but never built. http://aero.stanford.edu/reports/nonplanarwings/ClosedSystems.html http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=1986)
    • A type of box wing whose vertical fins curve continuously, blending smoothly into the wing tips. An early example was the Blériot III
      Blériot III
      -Bibliography:* Phillipps, Brian A. Bleriot: Herald of an Age. Stroud: Tempus, 2000 ISBN0 75241739 8* Hallion, Richard P. 'Taking Flight. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0 19 516035 5...
      
      , which featured two annular wings in tandem.

Box wing

Annular box wing

Cylindrical wing

Rhomboidal wing

Flat annular wing

Wings can also be characterised as:

• Rigid - stiff enough to maintain the aerofoil profile in varying conditions of airflow.
• Flexible - usually a thin membrane. Requires external bracing or wind pressure to maintain the aerofoil shape. Common types include Rogallo wing
  Rogallo wing
  The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of airfoil. In 1948, Gertrude Rogallo, and her husband Francis Rogallo, a NASA engineer, invented a self-inflating flexible wing they called the Parawing, also known after them as the "Rogallo Wing" and flexible wing...
  
  s and kite
  Kite
  A kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...
  
  s.

Wing planform

The wing planform

Planform

In aviation, a planform is the shape and layout of a fixed-wing aircraft's fuselage and wing. Of all the myriad planforms used, they can typically be grouped into those used for low-speed flight, found on general aviation aircraft, and those used for high-speed flight, found on many military...

 is the silhouette of the wing when viewed from above or below.

See also Variable geometry types which vary the wing planform during flight.

Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio

Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...

 is the span divided by the mean or average chord. It is a measure of how long and slender the wing appears when seen from above or below.

• Low aspect ratio - short and stubby wing. More efficient structurally, more maneuverable and with less drag at high speeds. They tend to be used by fighter aircraft, such as the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
  F-104 Starfighter
  The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...
  
  , and by very high-speed aircraft (e.g. North American X-15
  North American X-15
  The North American X-15 rocket-powered aircraft/spaceplane was part of the X-series of experimental aircraft, initiated with the Bell X-1, that were made for the USAAF/USAF, NACA/NASA, and the USN. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the early 1960s, reaching the edge of outer space and...
  
  ).

• Moderate aspect ratio - general-purpose wing (e.g. the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star
  P-80 Shooting Star
  The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces. Designed in 1943 as a response to the German Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter, and delivered in just 143 days from the start of the design process, production models were flying but...
  
  ).

• High aspect ratio - long and slender wing. More efficient aerodynamically, having less drag, at low speeds. They tend to be used by high-altitude subsonic aircraft (e.g. the Lockheed U-2
  Lockheed U-2
  The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is a single-engine, very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency . It provides day and night, very high-altitude , all-weather intelligence gathering...
  
  ), subsonic airliners (e.g. the Bombardier Dash 8) and by high-performance sailplanes (e.g. Glaser-Dirks DG-500
  Glaser-Dirks DG-500
  |-References:*...
  
  ).

Low aspect ratio

Moderate aspect ratio

High aspect ratio

Most Variable geometry configurations vary the aspect ratio in some way, either deliberately or as a side effect.

Wing sweep

Wings may be swept back, or occasionally forwards, for a variety of reasons. A small degree of sweep is sometimes used to adjust the centre of lift when the wing cannot be attached in the ideal position for some reason, such as a pilot's visibility from the cockpit. Other uses are described below.

• Straight - extends at right angles to the line of flight. The most efficient structurally, and common for low-speed designs, such as the P-80 Shooting Star
  P-80 Shooting Star
  The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces. Designed in 1943 as a response to the German Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter, and delivered in just 143 days from the start of the design process, production models were flying but...
  
  .
• Swept back
  Swept wing
  A swept wing is a wing planform favored for high subsonic jet speeds first investigated by Germany during the Second World War. Since the introduction of the MiG-15 and North American F-86 which demonstrated a decisive superiority over the slower first generation of straight-wing jet fighters...
  
  - (references to "swept" often assume swept back). From the root, the wing angles backwards towards the tip. In early tailless examples, such as the Dunne aircraft
  John William Dunne
  John William Dunne FRAeS was an Anglo-Irish aeronautical engineer and author. In the field of parapsychology, he achieved a preeminence through his theories on dreams and authoring books preoccupied with the question of the nature of time...
  
  , this allowed the outer wing section to act as a conventional tail empennage
  Empennage
  The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...
  
   to provide aerodynamic stability. At transonic
  Transonic
  Transonic speed is an aeronautics term referring to the condition of flight in which a range of velocities of airflow exist surrounding and flowing past an air vehicle or an airfoil that are concurrently below, at, and above the speed of sound in the range of Mach 0.8 to 1.2, i.e. 600–900 mph...
  
   speeds swept wings have lower drag, but can handle badly in or near a stall and require high stiffness to avoid aeroelasticity
  Aeroelasticity
  Aeroelasticity is the science which studies the interactions among inertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces. It was defined by Arthur Collar in 1947 as "the study of the mutual interaction that takes place within the triangle of the inertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces acting on structural...
  
   at high speeds. Common on high-subsonic and supersonic designs e.g. the English Electric Lightning
  English Electric Lightning
  The English Electric Lightning is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft of the Cold War era, noted for its great speed and unpainted natural metal exterior finish. It is the only all-British Mach 2 fighter aircraft. The aircraft was renowned for its capabilities as an interceptor; Royal Air Force ...
  
  .
• Forward swept
  Forward-swept wing
  A forward-swept wing is an aircraft wing configuration in which the quarter-chord line of the wing has a forward sweep. The configuration was first proposed in 1936 by German aircraft designers.Perceived benefits of a forward-swept wing design include...
  
  - the wing angles forwards from the root. Benefits are similar to backwards sweep, also at significant angles of sweep it avoids the stall problems and has reduced tip losses allowing a smaller wing, but requires even greater stiffness because of much higher liability to aeroelastic flutter and for this reason is not often used. A civil example is the HFB-320 Hansa Jet
  HFB-320 Hansa Jet
  |-See also:-References:*Sloot, Emiel. "Hansa Jet Retirement". Air International, October 1994, Vol 47 No 4. pp. 234–235. ISSN 0306-5634.*Taylor, John W. R.. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1965–66. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1965....
  
   and in military Sukhoi Su-47
  Sukhoi Su-47
  The Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut , also designated S-32 and S-37 during initial development, was an experimental supersonic jet fighter developed by Sukhoi Aviation Corporation...
  
  .

Some types of variable geometry

Variable geometry

Variable geometry may refer to:* Variable-geometry ways to alter the shape of an aircraft's wings in flight in order to alter their aerodynamic properties* Multi-speed Europe, a proposed strategy for European integration...

vary the wing sweep during flight:

• Swing-wing - also called "variable sweep wing". The left and right hand wings vary their sweep together, usually backwards. Seen in a few types of combat aircraft, the first being the General Dynamics F-111
  General Dynamics F-111
  The General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark" was a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the...
  
  .
• Oblique wing
  Oblique wing
  An oblique wing is a variable geometry wing concept. On an aircraft so equipped, the wing is designed to rotate on center pivot, so that one tip is swept forward while the opposite tip is swept aft...
  
  - a single full-span wing pivots about its mid point, so that one side sweeps back and the other side sweeps forward. Flown on the NASA AD-1
  NASA AD-1
  -References:CitationsBibliography* AD-1 Construction Completed, Dryden X-Press, Feb. 23, 1979, p. 2.* Robert E. Curry and Alex G. Sim, In-Flight Total Forces, Moments, and Static Aeroelastic Characteristics of an Oblique-Wing Research Airplane * Robert E. Curry and Alexander G...
  
   research aircraft.

Straight

Swept

Forward swept

Variable sweep (swing-wing)

Oblique wing

Planform variation along span

The wing chord

Chord (aircraft)

In aeronautics, chord refers to the imaginary straight line joining the trailing edge and the center of curvature of the leading edge of the cross-section of an airfoil...

 may be varied along the span of the wing, for both structural and aerodynamic reasons.

• Constant chord - leading & trailing edges are parallel. Simple to make, and common where low cost is important, e.g. in the Short Skyvan but inefficient as much of the outboard area generates no lift, but adds both drag and increases the stresses on the root structure making it heavier.
• Elliptical
  Elliptical wing
  An elliptical wing is a wing planform shape that minimizes induced drag. Elliptical taper shortens the chord near the wingtips in such a way that all parts of the wing experience equivalent downwash, and lift at the wing tips is essentially zero, improving aerodynamic efficiency due to a greater...
  
  - leading and/or trailing edges are curved such that the chord length
  Chord (aircraft)
  In aeronautics, chord refers to the imaginary straight line joining the trailing edge and the center of curvature of the leading edge of the cross-section of an airfoil...
  
   varies elliptically with respect to span. Aerodynamically the most efficient, but difficult to make. Famously used on the Supermarine Spitfire
  Supermarine Spitfire
  The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
  
  . The wings of the Seversky P-35
  Seversky P-35
  The Seversky P-35 was a fighter aircraft built in the United States by the Seversky Aircraft Company in the late 1930s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, the P-35 was the first single-seat fighter in U.S...
  
   were semi-elliptical , having a straight leading edge and progressively curved trailing edge.
• Tapered - wing narrows towards the tip, with straight edges. Structurally and aerodynamically more efficient than a constant chord wing, and easier to make than the elliptical type. One of the most common types of all, as on the Hawker Sea Hawk
  Hawker Sea Hawk
  The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm , the air branch of the Royal Navy , built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its origins stemmed from earlier Hawker piston-engined fighters, the Sea Hawk became the...
  
  .
• Reverse tapered - wing widens towards the tip. Structurally very inefficient, leading to high weight. Flown experimentally on the XF-91 Thunderceptor
  XF-91 Thunderceptor
  |-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Jenkins, Dennis R. and Tony R. Landis. Experimental & Prototype U.S. Air Force Jet Fighters. North Branch, Minnesota, USA: Specialty Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-58007-111-6....
  
   in an attempt to overcome the stall problems of swept wings.
• Compound tapered - taper reverses towards the root, to increase visibility for the pilot. Typically needs to be braced to maintain stiffness. Used on the Westland Lysander
  Westland Lysander
  The Westland Lysander was a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft used immediately before and during the Second World War...
  
   observation aircraft.
• Trapezoidal
  Trapezoidal wing
  The trapezoidal or diamond wing is a high-performance wing configuration. It is a short tapered wing having little or no overall sweep, such that the leading edge sweeps back and the trailing edge sweeps forwards. The trapezoidal design allows for a thin wing with low drag at high speeds, while...
  
  - a low aspect ratio tapered wing, having little or no sweep such that the leading edge sweeps back and the trailing edge sweeps forwards. Used for example on the Lockheed F-22 Raptor.

Constant chord

Elliptical

Tapered

Reverse tapered

Compound tapered

Trapezoidal

• Bird like - a curved shape appearing similar to a bird's outstretched wing. Popular during the pioneer years, and achieved some success on the Etrich Taube.
• Bat like - a form with radial ribs which was used for some early designs, especially if the wings were foldable. The Whitehead No. 21 of 1901 is sometimes claimed as the first powered aircraft to fly, over two years before the Wright Flyer
  Wright Flyer
  The Wright Flyer was the first powered aircraft, designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903 near the Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S.The U.S...
  
  .
• Circular - approximately circular planform. The Vought XF5U
  Vought XF5U
  |-See also:-Bibliography:* Chant, Christopher. Fantastic Aircraft. New York: Gallery Books, 1984. ISBN 0-8317-3-189-3.* Ginter, Steve. Chance Vought V-173 and XF5U-1 Flying Pancakes . Simi Valley, CA: Steve Ginter Publishing, 1992. ISBN 0-942612-21-3.* Guyton, Boone and Paul Marcus. "The Ups and...
  
   attempted to counteract the large tip vortices by using large propellers rotating in the opposite sense to the vortices.
  • Flying saucer
    Flying saucer
    A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
    
    - tailless circular flying wing. The Avrocar demonstrated the inherent instability of the design, while the Moller M200G
    M200G Volantor
    The M200G Volantor, recently re-named M200 Neuera is a prototype of a flying saucer-style hovercraft, designed by aeronautics engineer Paul Moller. The vehicle is envisioned as a precursor to the Moller Skycar M400. The M200G Volantor uses a system of eight computer-controlled fans to hover up to ...
    
     uses computer control to achieve artificial stability in hover mode.
  • Flat annular wing - the circle has a hole in, forming a closed wing (see above). A Lee-Richards type was one of the first stable aircraft to fly, shortly before the First World War.

Birdlike

Batlike

Circular

Flying saucer

Flat annular

• Delta
  Delta wing
  The delta wing is a wing planform in the form of a triangle. It is named for its similarity in shape to the Greek uppercase letter delta .-Delta-shaped stabilizers:...
  
  - triangular planform with swept leading edge and straight trailing edge. Offers the advantages of a swept wing, with good structural efficiency and low frontal area. Disadvantages are the low wing loading and high wetted area needed to obtain aerodynamic stability. Variants are:
  • Tailless delta - a classic high-speed design, used for example in the widely built Dassault Mirage III
    Dassault Mirage III
    The Mirage III is a supersonic fighter aircraft designed by Dassault Aviation during the late 1950s, and manufactured both in France and a number of other countries. It was a successful fighter aircraft, being sold to many air forces around the world and remaining in production for over a decade...
    
     series.
  • Tailed delta - adds a conventional tailplane, to improve handling. Popular on Soviet types such as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
    Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
    The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was popularly nicknamed "balalaika", from the aircraft's planform-view resemblance to the Russian stringed musical instrument or ołówek by Polish pilots due to...
    
    .
  • Cropped delta - tip is cut off. This helps avoid tip drag at high angles of attack. At the extreme, merges into the "tapered swept" configuration.
  • Compound delta or double delta - inner section has a (usually) steeper leading edge sweep e.g. Saab Draken. This improves the lift at high angles of attack and delays or prevents stalling. Seen in tailless form on the Tupolev Tu-144
    Tupolev Tu-144
    The Tupolev Tu-144 was a Soviet supersonic transport aircraft and remains one of only two SSTs to enter commercial service, the other being the Concorde...
    
    . The HAL Tejas
    HAL Tejas
    The HAL Tejas is a lightweight multirole fighter developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta-wing design powered by a single engine. It came from the Light Combat Aircraft programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India's ageing MiG-21 fighters...
    
     has an inner section of reduced sweep.
  • Ogival delta - a smoothly blended "wineglass" double-curve encompassing the leading edges and tip of a cropped compound delta. Seen in tailless form on the Concorde
    Concorde
    Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
    
     supersonic transports.

Tailless delta

Tailed delta

Cropped delta

Compound delta

Ogival delta

The angle of sweep may also be varied, or cranked, along the span:

• Crescent - wing outer section is swept less sharply than the inner section. Used for the Handley Page Victor
  Handley Page Victor
  The Handley Page Victor was a British jet bomber aircraft produced by the Handley Page Aircraft Company during the Cold War. It was the third and final of the V-bombers that provided Britain's nuclear deterrent. The other two V-bombers were the Avro Vulcan and the Vickers Valiant. Some aircraft...
  
  .
• Cranked arrow - similar to a compound delta, but with the trailing edge also kinked inwards. Trialled experimentally on the General Dynamics F-16XL. (See also Cranked wing below.)
• M-wing - the inner wing section sweeps forward, and the outer section sweeps backwards. The idea has been studied from time to time, but no example has ever been built.
• W-wing - the inner wing section sweeps back, and the outer section sweeps forwards. The reverse of the M-wing. The idea has been studied even less than the M-wing and no example has ever been built.

Crescent

Cranked arrow

M-wing

W-wing

Horizontal stabilizer

The classic aerofoil section wing is unstable in pitch, and requires some form of horizontal stabilising surface. Also it cannot provide any significant pitch control, requiring a separate control surface (elevator) elsewhere. The elevator may be hinged to a fixed horizontal stabiliser, or the whole stabiliser may pivot to double as the elevator.

• Conventional - "tailplane
  Tailplane
  A tailplane, also known as horizontal stabilizer , is a small lifting surface located on the tail behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes...
  
  " surface at the rear of the aircraft, forming part of the tail or empennage
  Empennage
  The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...
  
  .
• Canard
  Canard (aeronautics)
  In aeronautics, canard is an airframe configuration of fixed-wing aircraft in which the forward surface is smaller than the rearward, the former being known as the "canard", while the latter is the main wing...
  
  - "foreplane" surface at the front of the aircraft. Common in the pioneer years, but from the outbreak of World War I no production model appeared until the Saab Viggen.
• Tandem
  Tandem wing
  thumb|right|QAC Quickie Q2A tandem wing aircraft usually involves two full-sized wings, both of which are full airfoils. Sometimes an aircraft of this configuration can look like a variation on the biplane, but is in fact very different. The forward wing is often technically a canard, fitted with...
  
  - two main wings, one behind the other. The two act together to provide stability and both provide lift. An example is the Rutan Quickie
  Rutan Quickie
  -See also:-External links:***...
  
  . According to NASA research, the wings must differ in aerodynamic characteristics or the aircraft will tend to oscillate in pitch. Either span, chord or wing section must be different between the two wings.
• Tandem triple or triplet - having both conventional and canard surfaces. This may be for manoeuvrability, or the canard surfaces may be used for active vibration damping, to smooth out air turbulence giving the crew a more comfortable ride and reducing fatigue on the airframe. Popularly (but incorrectly) referred to as a tandem triplane. An example is the Sukhoi Su-33
  Sukhoi Su-33
  The Sukhoi Su-33 is an all-weather carrier-based air defence fighter designed by Sukhoi and manufactured by KnAAPO. It is a derivative of the Su-27 "Flanker" and was initially known as the Su-27K. The aircraft was first used in operations in 1995, aboard the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov...
  
  .
• Tailless
  Tailless aircraft
  A tailless aircraft traditionally has all its horizontal control surfaces on its main wing surface. It has no horizontal stabilizer - either tailplane or canard foreplane . A 'tailless' type usually still has a vertical stabilising fin and control surface...
  
  - no separate surface, at front or rear. Either the lifting and stabilising surfaces are combined in a single plane, or the aerofoil profile is modified to provide inherent stability. The whole wing tip sections of the Short SB.4 Sherpa acted as elevon
  Elevon
  Elevons are aircraft control surfaces that combine the functions of the elevator and the aileron , hence the name. They are frequently used on tailless aircraft such as flying wings. An elevon that is not part of the main wing, but instead is a separate tail surface, is a stabilator...
  
  s. Recently, aircraft having a tailplane but no vertical tail fin have also been described as "tailless".

Conventional

Canard

Tandem

Tandem triple

Tailless

Dihedral and anhedral

Angling the wings up or down spanwise from root to tip can help to resolve various design issues, such as stability and control in flight.

• Dihedral - the tips are higher than the root as on the Boeing 737
  Boeing 737
  The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
  
  , giving a shallow 'V' shape when seen from the front. Adds lateral stability.
• Anhedral - the tips are lower than the root, as on the Ilyushin Il-76
  Ilyushin Il-76
  The Ilyushin Il-76 is a multi-purpose four-engined strategic airlifter designed by Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a commercial freighter in 1967. Intended as a replacement for the Antonov An-12, the Il-76 was designed for delivering heavy machinery to remote, poorly-serviced areas...
  
  ; the opposite of dihedral. Used to reduce stability where some other feature results in too much stability thus making manoeuvering difficult. A popular choice in modern fighters since the configuration makes them more agile in battle. In level flight, computers assist the pilot in preventing the plane from teetering about.

Some biplanes have different angles of dihedral/anhedral on different wings; e.g. the first Short Sporting Type, known as the Shrimp, had a flat upper wing and a slight dihedral on the lower wing.

Dihedral

Anhedral

Biplane with dihedral on both wings

Biplane with dihedral on lower wing

The dihedral angle may vary along the span.

• Gull wing
  Gull wing
  The gull wing is an aircraft's wing configuration with a prominent bend in the wing somewhere along the span, generally near the wing root. Its name is derived from the seabirds which it resembles. It has been incorporated in aircraft for many reasons....
  
  - sharp dihedral on the wing root section, little or none on the main section, as on the Göppingen Gö 3 glider. Typically done to raise wing-mounted engines higher above the ground or water.
• Inverted gull - anhedral on the root section, dihedral on the main section. The opposite of a gull wing. Typically done to reduce the length and weight of wing-mounted undercarriage legs. Two well-known examples of the inverted gull wing are World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
  's American F4U Corsair
  F4U Corsair
  The Vought F4U Corsair was a carrier-capable fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and...
  
  , and the German Junkers Ju 87
  Junkers Ju 87
  The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...
  
   Stuka dive bomber.

Gull wing

Inverted gull wing

• Cranked - tip section dihedral differs from the main section. The wingtips may crank upwards as on the F-4 Phantom II
  F-4 Phantom II
  The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...
  
   or downwards as on the Dunne monoplane and Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet
  XP-56 Black Bullet
  |-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Allen, R.S. The Northrop Story. New York: Orion, 1990. ISBN 0-517-56677-4.* Andersen, Fred. Northrop - An Aeronautical History: a Commemorative Book Edition of Airplane Designs and Concepts. Century City, California: Northrop Corporation, 1976. Library of...
  
  . (Note that the term "cranked" varies in usage . Here, it is used to help clarify the relationship between changes of dihedral nearer the wing tip vs. nearer the wing root. See also Cranked arrow planform.)
• The channel wing
  Channel wing
  The channel wing is an aircraft wing principle developed by Willard Ray Custer in the 1920s. The most important part of the wing consists of a half-tube with an engine placed in the middle, driving a propeller placed at the rear end of the channel formed by the half-tube.- Development :In 1925,...
  
  is an unusual variation where the frontal profile follows the arc of a propeller down, around and back up, before continuing outwards in a conventional manner. Since 1942 several examples have flown, notably the Custer Channel Wing
  Custer Channel Wing
  -External links:**...
  
   aircraft, but none has entered production.

Upward cranked tips

Downward cranked tips

Channel wing

Wings vs. bodies

Some designs have no clear join between wing and fuselage, or body. This may be because one or other of these is missing, or because they merge into each other:

• Flying wing
  Flying wing
  A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure....
  
  - the aircraft has no distinct fuselage or tail empennage (although fins and small pods, blisters, etc. may be present); one example is the B-2 Spirit.
• Blended body or blended wing-body
  Blended wing body
  Blended Wing Body aircraft have a flattened and airfoil shaped body, which produces most of the lift, the wings contributing the balance. The body form is composed of distinct and separate wing structures, though the wings are smoothly blended into the body...
  
  - smooth transition between wing and fuselage, with no hard dividing line. Reduces wetted area
  Wetted area
  In sailboating, the wetted area is the area of the hull which is immersed in water.In aircraft, the wetted area is the area which is in contact with the external airflow...
  
   and hence, if done correctly, aerodynamic drag. The McDonnell XP-67 Bat
  XP-67 Bat
  The McDonnell XP-67 "Bat" or "Moonbat" was a prototype for a twin-engine, long range, single-seat interceptor aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces. Although the design was conceptually advanced, it was beset by numerous problems and never approached its anticipated level of performance...
  
   was also designed to maintain the aerofoil section across the entire aircraft profile.
• Lifting body
  Lifting body
  A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration in which the body itself produces lift. In contrast to a flying wing, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage, a lifting body can be thought of as a fuselage with little or no conventional wing...
  
  - the aircraft has no significant wings, and relies on the fuselage to provide aerodynamic lift i.e. X-24 .

Flying wing

Blended body

Lifting body

Some proposed designs, typically a sharply-swept delta planform having a deep centre section tapering to a thin outer section, fall across these categories and may be interpreted in different ways, for example as a lifting body with a broad fuselage, or as a low-aspect-ratio flying wing with a deep center chord.

Variable geometry

A variable geometry aircraft is able to change its physical configuration during flight.

Some types of variable geometry craft transition between fixed wing and rotary wing configurations. For more about these hybrids, see powered lift

Powered lift

Powered lift or powered-lift refers to a type of aircraft that can take off and land vertically and functions differently from a rotorcraft in horizontal flight....

.

Variable planform

• Swing-wing or variable sweep wing. The left and right hand wings vary their sweep together, usually backwards. The first successful wing sweep in flight was carried out by the Bell X-5
  Bell X-5
  -See also:-Bibliography:* Hallion, Richard P. On The Frontier: Flight Research At Dryden 1946-1981 . Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1984 . ISBN 1-58834-134-8....
  
   in the early 1950s.
• Oblique wing
  Oblique wing
  An oblique wing is a variable geometry wing concept. On an aircraft so equipped, the wing is designed to rotate on center pivot, so that one tip is swept forward while the opposite tip is swept aft...
  
  - a single full-span wing pivots about its mid point, as used on the NASA AD-1
  NASA AD-1
  -References:CitationsBibliography* AD-1 Construction Completed, Dryden X-Press, Feb. 23, 1979, p. 2.* Robert E. Curry and Alex G. Sim, In-Flight Total Forces, Moments, and Static Aeroelastic Characteristics of an Oblique-Wing Research Airplane * Robert E. Curry and Alexander G...
  
  , so that one side sweeps back and the other side sweeps forward.
• Telescoping wing - the outer section of wing telescopes over or within the inner section of wing, varying span, aspect ratio and wing area, as used on the FS-29 TF
  Akaflieg Stuttgart FS-29
  |-See also:-References:* http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/akaflieg/index.php?id=49&L=2-External links:* http://www.sailplanedirectory.com/PlaneDetails.cfm?planeID=110...
  
   glider. The Makhonine Mak-123 was an early example.
• Extending wing or expanding wing - part of the wing retracts into the main aircraft structure to reduce drag and low-altitude buffet for high-speed flight, and is extended only for takeoff, low-speed cruise and landing. The Gérin Varivol biplane, which flew in 1936, extended the leading and trailing edges to increase wing area.

Variable sweep (swing-wing)

Oblique wing

Telescoping wing

Extending wing

• Folding wing
  Folding wing
  A folding wing is a design feature of aircraft to save space in the airfield, and time, and is typical of naval aircraft that operate from the limited deck space of aircraft carriers. The folding allows the aircraft to occupy less space in a confined hangar because the folded wing normally rises...
  
  - part of the wing extends for takeoff and landing, and folds away for high-speed flight. The outer sections of the XB-70 Valkyrie
  XB-70 Valkyrie
  The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype version of the proposed B-70 nuclear-armed deep-penetration strategic bomber for the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command...
  
   wing folded down, to increase lift and reduce drag through generation of 'compression lift
  Compression lift
  In aerodynamics, compression lift refers to an aircraft that uses shock waves generated by its own supersonic flight to generate lift. This can lead to dramatic improvements in lift for supersonic/hypersonic aircraft, which often fly at high altitudes and thus suffer from decreased lift due to the...
  
  ' during supersonic flight. (Many aircraft have wings that may be folded for storage on the ground or on board ship. These are not folding wings in the sense used here).

Folding wing

Variable chord

• Variable incidence
  Variable-incidence wing
  A variable-incidence wing has an adjustable angle of incidence in order to reduce landing and take-off distances. It was patented in France on May 20, 1912 by Bulgarian inventor George Boginoff....
  
  - the wing plane can tilt upwards or downwards relative to the fuselage. Used on the Vought F-8 Crusader
  F-8 Crusader
  The Vought F-8 Crusader was a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft built by Vought for the United States Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, replacing the Vought F7U Cutlass...
  
   to tilt the leading edge up by a small amount for takeoff, to give STOL
  STOL
  STOL is an acronym for short take-off and landing, a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements.-Definitions:There is no one accepted definition of STOL and many different definitions have been used by different authorities and nations at various times and for a myriad of...
  
   performance. If powered proprotors are fitted to the wing to allow vertical takeoff or STOVL
  STOVL
  STOVL is an acronym for short take off and vertical landing.This is the ability of some aircraft to take off from a short runway or take off vertically if it does not have a very heavy payload and land vertically...
  
   performance, merges into the powered lift
  Powered lift
  Powered lift or powered-lift refers to a type of aircraft that can take off and land vertically and functions differently from a rotorcraft in horizontal flight....
  
   category.
• Variable camber
  Variable camber wing
  Variable camber wing is a design of aircraft wing by Vincent Burnelli that changes the camber of the airfoil , and varies the area and camber of the wing .A mechanism moves and rotates the leading and trailing edge to gain camber and wing area....
  
  - the leading and trailing edge sections of the wing pivot and/or extend to increase the effective camber and/or area of the wing. This increases lift at low angles of attack, delays stalling at high angles of attack, and enhances manoeuverability.
  • Variable thickness - the upper wing centre section can be raised to increase wing thickness and camber for landing and take-off, and lowered for high speed flight. Charles Rocheville modified one or more aircraft in the course of his researches.

Variable incidence wing

Variable camber aerofoil

Variable thickness aerofoil

Polymorphism

A polymorphic wing is able to change the number of planes in flight. The Nikitin-Shevchenko IS

Nikitin-Shevchenko IS

|-See also:-References:* Gunston, Bill. "Encyclopaedia of Russian Aircraft 1875-1995". London:Osprey. 1995. ISBN 1-85532-405-9http://issuu.com/jeanlulu/docs/-aviation--soviet-x-planes--yefim-gordon---bill-gu-External links:* good photos and drawing*...

 "folding fighter" protoypes were able to morph between biplane and monoplane configurations after takeoff by folding the lower wing into a cavity in the upper wing.

Polymorphic wing

Minor aerodynamic surfaces

Additional minor aerodynamic surfaces may form part of the overall wing configuration:

• Winglet
  Winglet
  Wingtip devices are usually intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft. There are several types of wingtip devices, and though they function in different manners, the intended effect is always to reduce the aircraft's drag by partial recovery of the tip vortex energy...
  
  - a small vertical fin at the wingtip, usually turned upwards. Reduces the size of vortices shed by the wingtip, and hence also tip drag.
• Chine - narrow extension to the leading edge wing root, extending far along the forward fuselage. As well as improving low speed (high angle of attack) handling, provides extra lift at supersonic speeds for minimal increase in drag. Seen on the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.
• Leading edge extension
  Leading edge extension
  A leading edge extension is a small extension to an aircraft wing surface, forward of the leading edge. Different kinds of extensions have been used for different reasons.-Leading edge slats:...
  
  - small fillet used on fighters to improve lift characteristics at high angles of attack.
• Moustache - small high-aspect-ratio canard surface having no movable control surface. Typically is retractable for high speed flight. Deflects air downward onto the wing root, to delay the stall. Seen on the Dassault Milan and Tupolev Tu-144
  Tupolev Tu-144
  The Tupolev Tu-144 was a Soviet supersonic transport aircraft and remains one of only two SSTs to enter commercial service, the other being the Concorde...
  
  .

Minor surface features

Additional minor features may be applied to an existing aerodynamic surface such as the main wing:

• Leading edge extensions of various kinds.
• Slot
  Leading edge slot
  A leading edge slot is an aerodynamic feature of the wing of some aircraft to reduce the stall speed and promote good low-speed handling qualities. A leading edge slot is a span-wise gap in each wing, allowing air to flow from below the wing to its upper surface...
  
  - a spanwise gap behind the leading edge section, which forms a small aerofoil or slat extending along the leading edge of the wing. Air flowing through the slot is deflected by the slat to flow over the wing, allowing the aircraft to fly at lower air speeds. Leading edge slats
  Leading edge slats
  Slats are aerodynamic surfaces on the leading edge of the wings of fixed-wing aircraft which, when deployed, allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack. A higher coefficient of lift is produced as a result of angle of attack and speed, so by deploying slats an aircraft can fly at slower...
  
   are moveable extensions which open and close the slot.
• Flap
  Flap (aircraft)
  Flaps are normally hinged surfaces mounted on the trailing edges of the wings of a fixed-wing aircraft to reduce the speed an aircraft can be safely flown at and to increase the angle of descent for landing without increasing air speed. They shorten takeoff and landing distances as well as...
  
  - trailing-edge (or leading-edge) wing section which may be angled downwards for low-speed flight, especially when landing. Some types also extend backwards to increase wing area.
• Wing fence
  Wing fence
  Wing fences, also known as boundary layer fences and potential fences are fixed aerodynamic devices attached to aircraft wings. Not to be confused with wingtip fences, wing fences are flat plates fixed to the upper surfaces parallel to the airflow. They are often seen on swept-wing aircraft...
  
  - a thin surface extending along the wing chord and for a short distance vertically. Used to control spanwise airflow over the wing.
• Vortex generator
  Vortex generator
  A vortex generator is an aerodynamic surface, consisting of a small vane or bump that creates a vortex. Vortex generators can be found on many devices, but the term is most often used in aircraft design....
  
  - small triangular protrusion on the upper leading wing surface; usually, several are spaced along the span of the wing. The vortices are used to re-energise the boundary layer
  Boundary layer
  In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is that layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface where effects of viscosity of the fluid are considered in detail. In the Earth's atmosphere, the planetary boundary layer is the air layer near the ground affected by diurnal...
  
   and reduce drag.
• Anti-shock body
  Anti-shock body
  An Anti-shock body is a pod positioned on the leading or trailing edge of an aircraft's aerodynamic surface to reduce wave drag at transonic speeds .-Wing trailing edge:...
  
  - a streamlined "pod" shaped body added to the leading or trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface, to delay the onset of shock stall and reduce transonic wave drag. Examples include the Küchemann carrots on the wing trailing edge of the Handley Page Victor
  Handley Page Victor
  The Handley Page Victor was a British jet bomber aircraft produced by the Handley Page Aircraft Company during the Cold War. It was the third and final of the V-bombers that provided Britain's nuclear deterrent. The other two V-bombers were the Avro Vulcan and the Vickers Valiant. Some aircraft...
  
   B.2, and the tail fairing on the Hawker Sea Hawk
  Hawker Sea Hawk
  The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm , the air branch of the Royal Navy , built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its origins stemmed from earlier Hawker piston-engined fighters, the Sea Hawk became the...
  
  .
• Fairings of various kinds, such as blisters, pylons and wingtip pods, containing equipment which cannot fit inside the wing, and whose only aerodynamic purpose is to reduce the drag created by the equipment.

External links

• High wing, low wing - Flight article on the merits of wing position