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BAe Jetstream 31 with cruciform tail

The cruciform tail is an aircraft empennage configuration which, when viewed from the aircraft's front or rear, looks much like a cross. The usual arrangement is to have the horizontal stabilizer intersect the vertical tail somewhere near the middle, and above the top of the fuselage.^[1]

Often this arrangement is chosen to keep the tail out of the engines' wake or to avoid complex interference drag.

Cruciform tails are also used on many kind of airships, like classical Zeppelins.

Benefits[link]

The cruciform tail gives the benefit of clearing the aerodynamics of the tail away from the wake of the engine, while not requiring the same amount of strengthening of the vertical tail section in comparison with a T-tail design.

Applications[link]

Avro Canada CF-100 showing its cruciform design tail.

See also[link]

• Pelikan tail
• T-tail
• Twin tail
• V-tail

References[link]