airplane wing and horizontal stabilizer locations?

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It's strictly a choice of the designers. As you note there are operating aircraft in all these configurations. You can design an airplane in any of these possibilities, and lots others, so there are no simple rules to determine the positions. You have to take all of the design requirements for the aircraft and run trial designs past those requirements until you get the best design.

There are some common considerations. a high horizontal stabilizer is subject to masking during certain maneuvers which can cause the plane to lose control. But yet there are lots of popular aircraft in that configuration.

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I worked for 2 years flying a Cessna a hundred and eighty on Floats, the a hundred and eighty has a shifting horizontal stabilizer so it is my rationalization approximately what occurs interior the flare with that airplane.. won't be able to say for particular with all different planes yet i'm truly particular its the comparable. elevating the nostril of the airplane previously landing (flare) is performed with use of the elevator. The shifting horizontal stabilizer is used because of fact the aircrafts trim. once you swap very final for landing you mostly set your concepts-set concepts-set and regulate your trim to take tension off the airplane controls (the stress you sense on your arms on an identical time as flying). once you regulate the trim the horizontal stabilizer strikes up or down reckoning on the type you trim the airplane. while coming near the runway the airplane is often thoroughly trimmed previously landing so all you may desire to do is pull back into the flare. once you pull back, in basic terms the elevator strikes. The stabilizer remains table certain till you regulate the trim. The shifting stabilizer acts in decision to a trim tab that's usually area of the elevator of alternative airplane. (like on a C172). long answer short - They flare with the elevator....Show more

Aircraft can be built with high or low wing and high or low tail. Some large cargo aircraft have high tails because they have large cargo doors under the tail and some jets that have jet engines on the vertical tail have high horizontal stabilizers just to get them out of the jet wash. Barring those kind of functional reasons, there are some performance considerations. A high wing aircraft is naturally more stable because the center of gravity (the weight) is below the center of lift so if the aircraft starts to bank, all that weight hanging below the wing will tend to bring the plane back to horizontal. A low wing aircraft does not have this inherent roll stability so it must have dihedral in the wing which is that shallow V effect where the wing tip is higher than the wing root. This dihedral provides enough stability but it causes the wing lift force (which is perpendicular to the wing) to be at an angle from vertical. This sloped wing produces lift that is not in the vertical direction (and therefor wasted) and that extra wasted lift is accompanied by extra drag, so it is not as efficient as a horizontal high wing. My experience is mostly with small private planes and there are a few more effects here. High and low winged aircraft also have different landing and takeoff properties due to "ground effect'. This is when the wing of an aircraft is within about one wingspan of the ground and the air gets sort of trapped between the wing and the ground effectively giving the airplane more lift. This effect is more pronounced in a low wing aircraft. Some aircraft that are designed to fly out of dirt runways have high wings and medium tails just to keep them away from gravel kicked up from the "prop wash". Sea planes also have high wings and tails to keep them from getting wet. I had a high wing plane (1948 Stinson Voyager) with a medium-low tail that was designed to fly through the wing turbulence during stall. This turbulence buffets the tail as a warning to the pilot that the wing is stalling, a pretty cool stall warning although all modern aircraft have an electric audible stall warning. There is an advantage to having air from the propeller (prop wash) flow over the wings because it generates more lift, and there is an advantage having the prop wash go over the tail surfaces because you get more control authority at low air speed. Some aircraft (for example the Piper Tomahawk) were built with very high horizontal tails (to look like modern jets) but since the horizontal tail was out of the prop wash it had to be very large in order to have enough low speed control authority. That gives it too much control authority at cruise speed, consequently these planes are a little "twitchy" or hypersensitive at cruise (I still really like the Tomahawk). There are some other subtle considerations. Gas is generally stored in the wings. On a high wing small aircraft, the gas flows out of the tanks to the engine without the need for a fuel pump. On low wing aircraft, the gas has to be pumped out of the wings to the engine with an engine driven fuel pump and a backup electric fuel pump, more things to go wrong. There are visibility considerations. In a high wing aircraft, it is harder to see things above you but you can see the ground well. In a low wing aircraft, some of the ground visibility is obstructed by the wing (especially for back seat passengers) but you have great visibility above. Also when you turn a high wing aircraft, the wing dips down and blocks your view of where you intend to go, while a low wing aircraft's wing lowers in a turn to show you where you are headed. This is probably why fighter planes tend to have low wings. The threat from other fighter planes is mostly above you and when you turn in pursuit of another aircraft your wing doesn't block your view. Observation planes have high wings. Finally a few comfort considerations. When it is raining, you can stand under the wing of a high wing aircraft while opening the door and getting into the plane, whereas you stand on the wing to enter a low wing aircraft so the rain gets on you and inside the plane. Also you are basically in the shade when you fly in a high wing private plane, whereas a low wing plane puts you more in the sun....Show more