'V' is For Variety

The iconic empennage evolves.

Tuesday, March 07, 2023 at 04:17 PM ET

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Apart from the Bonanza, most people would be hard-pressed to name many V-tail airplanes, but a list of no fewer than 142 of them can be found online. [Credit: Jessica Ambats]

Key Takeaways:

The V-tail, invented in the 1930s and popularized by the Beech Bonanza, was often perceived and marketed as having advantages like reduced drag and cost, though formal analysis (e.g., NACA) found no decisive superiority over conventional tail designs.
The V-tail Bonanza was discontinued due to a series of fatal accidents caused by structural design flaws in the tail surfaces, not the inherent V-tail concept, suggesting its designers may have been overly optimistic about surface size.
Modern V-tail designs are primarily adopted for practical necessities, such as avoiding interference with a rear-mounted jet engine or for stealth characteristics, and often feature larger surfaces and greater dihedral compared to earlier V-tails.

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One day back in ancient times, I went to Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) to report on a gadget that was supposed to improve the directional stability of V-tail Beechcraft Bonanzas. It consisted of a bent-up aluminum channel about 8 feet long, similar to a length of roof gutter, that screwed to the underside of the aft fuselage. Its creator explained that it trapped a stream of air and thereby kept the tail from swinging from side to side.

I did not see how this could be, but I flew the Bonanza, first without the channel, and then with it. I kicked the rudder pedals a number of times and duly noted my subjective impression of the damping—that is, the number and size of oscillations required to return to steady flight. I am embarrassed to report that I did feel that the airplane with the channel was a little stiffer directionally. Possibly placebo effect.