** Never averse to oddness, Rutan tried
putting the Defiant's rudder at the front. But
didn't that make the airplane want to swap
ends?**
Key Takeaways:
The "rhino rudder" on Rutan's Defiant is an unconventional nose-mounted rudder whose inherent directional destabilizing effect is carefully balanced by larger wingtip fins to maintain overall stability.
The term "canard stabilizer" is a misnomer; canard surfaces, located ahead of an aircraft's center of gravity, are inherently longitudinally destabilizing and serve control and lift functions, not primary stabilization.
Aircraft stability design, whether directional or longitudinal, is a complex process involving intricate interactions between various aerodynamic surfaces, their placement relative to the center of gravity, and phenomena like downwash and upwash.
A ready asked me the purpose of the odd-looking fin projecting downward from the nose of the Defiant on the cover of our August 2011 “Rutan Retrospective” issue.
It’s the rudder. Rutan called it a “rhino rudder,” because in versions he tried on the VariEze and Long-EZ it was on top. But what was the rudder doing on the front of the airplane?
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Peter Garrison taught himself to use a slide rule and tin snips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He began contributing to FLYING in 1968, and he continues to share his columns, ""Technicalities"" and ""Aftermath,"" with FLYING readers.
