NASA And Boeing To Test Experimental Fuel-saving Tail Design

April 6, 2015

A smaller tail means a lighter plane and, hence, lower fuel consumption.

Source Endgadget

Active Flow Control Enhanced Vertical Tail Flight Experiment puts 31 tiny jets on a plane's vertical tail, which can manipulate the flow of air over the tail's surface and generate enough force to stabilize the plane during takeoff and landing, even if the fin's around 17 percent smaller than usual.

Boeing's new ecoDemonstrator (a 757) is slated to go on a series of flights this spring to try out two of NASA's experimental fuel-saving techniques. One of them's the Active Flow Control Enhanced Vertical Tail Flight Experiment, which entails installing 31 tiny jets on a plane's vertical tail or dorsal fin. These jets can manipulate the flow of air over the tail's surface and generate enough force to stabilize the plane during takeoff and landing, even if the fin's around 17 percent smaller than usual. A smaller tail means a lighter plane and, hence, lower fuel consumption.

More details here.