3241: Horizontal Stabilizers

2026-05-06T13:30:44Z

2607:FB91:3F8A:2D67:AD2:BD57:8176:944B: Fixed typo (C9ntrols -> Controls)

{{comic
| number = 3241
| date = May 5, 2026
| title = Horizontal Stabilizers
| image = horizontal_stabilizers_2x.png
| imagesize = 436x341px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It started as a mistake that everyone was afraid to admit to, and then it stuck because removing it 'looks silly.'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created HORIZONTALLY, so just make it BIGGER. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|Stabilizer (aircraft)#Horizontal stabilizers|horizonal stabilizer}} (also often described as a {{w|tailplane}}) is part of an aircraft which typically provides extra longitudinal balance, with the tailplane maintaining balance and control of the aircraft. Although some alternate types of airframe work without them (e.g. by making use of more complex main wing control surfaces), most (and the most common) aircraft use {{w|Tailplane#Tailplane types|some version or other}} of a tailplane. The structure of aircraft varies based on what they {{What If|30|have to do}}.

This comic claims that horizontal stabilizers are a mistake in the design process, and not at all necessary. The original construction of some particular plane only had small wings and the mere stub of fusalage to which they were attached, but neither wings nor body were big enough to be useful. Rather than spending time and resources rebuilding from scratch, they just added more fuselage, with much bigger wings, and continued to use the original insufficient fuselage and 'wings' in the manner of a tailplane.

The title text takes this even further, stating that people deliberately ignored the superfluousness of this new part, and later, whenever they decided to remove the feature (perhaps to save weight, or just 'complexity') people were already so used to them being there that it "looked silly", so they put them back on to satisfy expectations. This may be referencing the use of 'spoilers' on everyday passenger cars, which are often included purely for cosmetic reasons, because it makes the vehicle look 'fast' or 'sporty' while having little or no effect in producing the desired downforce (for extreme cornering or acceleration), and may instead just add drag to the car to make it ultimately ''slower'' in a straight line speed-test.

There are some {{w|tailless aircraft}}, often designed as such precisely to minimise the latent drag from the tailplane surfaces (another possible reason being to create a {{w|Radar cross section|more 'stealthy' aircraft}}), and many people do consider them unusual-looking. Some aircraft, including the original {{w|Wright Flyer}}, have the horizontal stabilizers in the front rather than the tail section due to design assumptions made at the time (later superseded by the 'normal' and typically more stable configuration), with some more modern planes again using {{w|Canard (aeronautics)|canard}} 'forward control surfaces' instead of (or {{w|three-surface aircraft|in addition to}}) the rear-mounted ones using a more modern understanding of the actuve aerodynamic needs of a plane in flight.

The comic does not address the need for any {{w|vertical stabilizer}} and rudder, often integrated in some way with the (horizontal) tailplane or at least being rooted in the same section of fuselage. (Some may describe the {{w|empennage|whole assembly}} of horizontal and vertical rear surfaces (both static and actuated) as the "tailplane", due to it being all together in the same place.) The comic's original 'stabilizer only' plane ''also'' lacked any such vertical control surfaces. By the same logic, of course, a true 'tailless' aircraft like a Flying Wing ''can'' also fly without a tailfin-like structure, usually controlling its yaw through differential power and/or drag across its two remaining wings. Although 'half-tail' airframes exist that still use one ''or'' the other of horizontal and vertical control surfaces, where the main wing controls the other, and there are also tail designs that integrate both control and stabilization functions into {{w|V-tail|the same hybrid tail-structure}}.

At some point before the scene in the factory and the conversation about the airplane in flight, the evolving design seems to have gained the vertical stabiliser as well, for unstated in-comic reasons perhaps just as superfluous as that for which it has retained the horizontal version. But, then again, as well as gaining more fuselage (which may necessarily have completed the stated design expectation of it being 'bigger', by increasing its potential cargo capacity) it has also managed to gain such useful features as a cockpit/nosecone ''and also engines'', the ultimate superfluity of which is far less likely to (even reluctantly) justify.

==Trivia==
*This is a rare [[:Category:Tuesday comics|Tuesday comic]]. There was no [[:Category:Monday comics|Monday comic]] this week.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Cueball and Ponytail are standing, looking up at an airplane in the sky. Cueball is pointing at the airplane.]
:Cueball: What's with the little wings on the tails of the airplanes? Do they really need them?
:Ponytail: They're horizontal stabilizers. They serve a crucial aerodynamic role.

:[Next Panel. Hairy, another Cueball, and Megan are standing in a room, with Hairy on the left of a small fuselage segment with small wings attached to the sides of it, while Cueball and Megan are standing on the right of it. Hairy has his arms raised. There is a caption in a box at the top of the panel.]
:Caption: Previously, at the airplane factory...
:Hairy: These wings you made are way too small! The plane is supposed to be much bigger!
:Other Cueball: Sorry! We'll start over.
:Hairy: No, there's no time. Just make it longer and put the bigger wings on the new section.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

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3241: Horizontal Stabilizers