A tandem wing aircraft has two main wings, with one located forward and the other to the rear. Both wings contribute to lift. In the case where the rearmost tandem wing is smaller so that it looks like an oversize tailplane it is referred to as a "Delanne wing" - from Maurice Delanne, a French designer of tandem wing aircraft. In a tandem wing design the lift vectors on the two wings are spread far apart longitudinally, allowing them to act together to achieve stability and control.
This is different from a biplane, in which the wings are stacked more or less vertically, one above the other, such that their lift vectors are very close together and a separate horizontal stabiliser surface is required, placed well forward or aft of the main wings. It differs from the canard or "tail-first" configuration in that the forward wing contributes a major part of the lift, typically more than 50%.
Read more about Tandem Wing: Designers Using Tandem Wings, Examples, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words tandem and/or wing:
“The Cad is the entire epitome, the complete blossom and fruit in one, of what we are told is an age of culture. Behold him in the vélodrome as he yells insanely after his kind as they tear along on their tandem machines in a match, and then ask yourself candidly, O my reader, if any age before this in all the centuries of earth ever produced any creature so utterly low and loathsome, so physically, mentally, individually, and collectively hideous?”
—Ouida [Marie Louise De La Ramée] (1839–1908)
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—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)