T-tail

[citation needed] During normal flying conditions, the tailplane of a T-tail is out of the disturbed airflow behind the wing and fuselage,[1] which provides for more consistent elevator response.

[1] For a transsonic aircraft a T-tail configuration may improve pitch control effectiveness, because the elevator is not in disturbed air behind the fuselage, particularly at moderate angles of attack.

[4][1] The American McDonnell F-101 Voodoo jet fighter suffered from this problem,[citation needed] as did the British Gloster Javelin, Hawker Siddeley Trident and BAC One-Eleven.

[citation needed] The vertical stabilizer must be made stronger (and therefore heavier) to support the weight of the tailplane.

Many large aircraft can have the fin and rudder fold to reduce height in hangars, however this generally isn't feasible or useful if there is a T-tail.

The control runs to the elevators are more complex,[citation needed] and the surfaces are more difficult to inspect from the ground.

[citation needed] The T-tail can often be found on military transport aircraft, such as the Airbus A400M, the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and the Embraer C-390 Millenium.

In the 1960s, several passenger jets with rear-fuselage-mounted engines featured T-tails, such as the BAC One-Eleven, the Vickers VC10, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, the Boeing 727, the Fokker F28 Fellowship, and the Russian Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-154.

In the 1970s it was used on the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, and the Russian freighter Ilyushin Il-76, as well as the twin turboprop Beechcraft Super King Air.