3241: Horizontal Stabilizers

Horizontal Stabilizers

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Title text: It started as a mistake that everyone was afraid to admit to, and then it stuck because removing it 'looks silly.'.

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Explanation

This is one of 48 incomplete explanations: This page was created HORIZONTALLY, so just make it BIGGER. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

The horizonal stabilizer, which is a part of the tailplane, is part of the aircraft which typically provides extra longitudinal balance to the airplane, with the tailplane maintaining balance and control of the aircraft. Although some alternate types of airframe work without them, e.g. making use of more complex main wing control surfaces, most (and the most common) aircraft use some version or other of tailplane. The structure of aircraft varies based on what it has to do

This comic jokes that horizontal stabilizers are an accident of design, and not at all necessary. The original construction of some particular plane only had a small wings, but this wasn't big enough to be useful. Rather than rebuild from scratch, they just added the rest of the fuselage with its full-sized wings and continued to use the original insufficient fuselage and 'wings' in the manner of a tailplane.

The title text takes this even further, because it states that people deliberately ignored that this new part on airplanes was not necessary. And later, whenever they decided to remove the feature (perhaps to save weight, or just 'complexity') they noticed that the plane "looked weird" and so put them back on only because it was expected. There are some tailless aircraft, and many people do consider them unusual looking.^{[citation needed]}

Some aircraft, including the original Wright Flyer, have the horizontal stabilizers in the front rather than the tail section.

Trivia

• This is a rare Tuesday comic. There was no Monday comic this week.

Transcript

This is one of 45 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[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.

[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.

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Discussion

Was this late or was it just me?--OceanLord (talk) 20:08, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Somewhat late. Yes. But it's all good. 81.179.199.253 20:11, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Publishing times are not very consistent. Mid-afternoon Eastern Time is not unusual. There have been quite a few times when it didn't arrive until late night, and occasionally even after midnight. Barmar (talk) 20:12, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

About a day late from usual. 47.248.235.170 20:20, 5 May 2026 (UTC)Pat

Oh right, I didn't even realize it's Tuesday afternoon. So yes, very late. Barmar (talk) 20:30, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

That's what I thought--OceanLord (talk) 20:41, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

And for more discussion (posted before this comic went live) see the bottom of yesterday's discussion. MAP (talk) 21:27, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Interestingly, the xkcd archive page tooltip shows the publish date as "2026-05-04". hmmmm RDiMartino (talk) 00:46, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Exactly, see archive and hold the curser over the comic. We usually use that day on this site. So should we use it and make a note that it was very late? If Randall does not aknowledge it being late what then? --Kynde (talk) 11:08, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

My (non-authoritative) opinion: It's just a (late, but not record-late) Monday comic, at least until we get some actual information that explains how it isn't.

If a clearly intended May The Fo(u)rth-type comic soon appears, with or without official comment, then it can be mentioned here and there that the other one exists, for the record. But until then it's... just a late-Monday one. The chatter here in the Talk section more than suffices, there's no real need for Trivia about this.

But that's just my thoughts. No more than a suggestion. 82.132.237.108 13:06, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

For those curious, an aircraft with one pair of wings is the aerodynamic equivalent of one pair of legs or wheels. It can work, but it requires careful considerations to keep it balanced. If a conventional aircraft loses its horizontal stabilizer, it will lose that balance and nose up or down uncontrollably. Aircraft that have no horizontal stabilizer usually use a method in which part of the main wing effectively functions in its place. RegularSizedGuy (talk) 21:01, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

I usually manage to use my legs without much careful consideration. 82.13.184.33 08:39, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

The consideration is mostly during the design phase, and even then, there were some serious compromises made that cause cumulative problems with the legs, pelvis, spine, and internal organs. RegularSizedGuy (talk) 13:37, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

I'm fairly sure there was no design phase. 82.13.184.33 08:12, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Is it low resolution, or small size of the figures, that this comic looks "retro" like the first few hundred, before Randall's art became really regular (perhaps he uses templates or programmatic drawing now?) Elizium23 (talk) 23:06, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Considering the timing, it is likely this was a backup comic that's been sitting around a while. Randall has said in the past that he keeps about a dozen comics in reserve just for that purpose.52.213.77.206 06:44, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Aha, 1+1=2, that makes total sense. The joke itself is also notably timeless. Could be written many years ago easily. Shall we adjust the description to indicate that this is likely a backup comic? Hope everything is well at the Randall household! 178.119.6.18 10:15, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Don't think it has a place in the explanation - it's nothing more than speculative. 82.13.184.33 10:37, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Sorry for the stupid question, but I don't know Darkstalkers outside of...those pix :-) Are the funny things on the heads of Lilith and Morrigan ailerons? 2A02:2455:1960:4000:95FB:B512:751B:45ED 08:30, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Well, all of her clothes are actually bats... I know the burning animation burns all her bats covering her body... Does the burning sprite have the "ailerons" or not? I don't remember, and I'm absolutely not going to search now. If they're made from bats I guess they're ailerons, if not they're just anime style shenanigans. 181.238.48.193 16:31, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

This comic reminds me of chapter 5 of the book "How to": How to Make an Emergency Landing. In that interview with Chris Hadfield he is faced with the absurd question on how to land a plane from the outside, and he replies that if we could move the tail controls by hand we could even land the plane, so xkcd already told the readers of his book (in a way) that the airplane tail wings are very important. 104.28.20.65 14:16, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Lack of a rudder here is worrying though. Or is that a myth because the first planes were seaplanes and the rudder idea just stuck. 2401:d002:a203:dc00:cf00:26f9:66f5:5c38 (talk) 12:50, 9 May 2026 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

(erm... The Wright Flyer might have been a beach-plane, at best, and it was a while before the Fabre Hydravion appeared... so I'm not even sure how to start to answer that theory) 82.132.246.233 14:29, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
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