Tail of the Plane
The tail of an plane has two types of wings which manoeuvre and control the plan. These are the horizontal and vertical stabilizer, which as the name implies keep the plane stabilized. The vertical stabilizer prevents the plan’s nose from moving from side to side, otherwise known as yaw motion. This motion occurs on the yaw axis which according to Nasa “is perpendicular to the wings and lies in the plane of the aircraft centerline” For more information on yaw click here https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/yaw.html.
Figure 12- Airplane Parts and Function Figure 13- Yawing Motion
The horizontal stabilizer does the opposite, preventing the plane’s nose from moving up and down. This movement is known as pitch motion which occurs on the pitch axis which according to NASA “is perpendicular to the aircraft centerline and lies in the plane of the wings.” For more information on pitch click here https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/pitch.htm. Hinged to the horizontal wing tails are flaps known as elevators. They are called such as they enable a plan to go up and down through the air the same way an elevator allows you to do so in a building. The pilot changes the angle of attack to generate lift which controls the pitch (up and down movement of the plane’s nose) of the aircraft as seen in the animation below.