Planform (aeronautics)

Fixed-wing aircraft, popularly called aeroplanes, airplanes, or just planes, may be built with many wing configurations.

This page provides a breakdown of types, allowing a full description of any aircraft's wing configuration. For example, the Supermarine Spitfire wing may be classified as a conventional low wing cantilever monoplane with straight elliptical wings of moderate aspect ratio and slight dihedral.

Sometimes the distinction between types is blurred, for example the wings of many modern combat aircraft may be described either as cropped compound deltas with (forwards or backwards) swept trailing edge, or as sharply tapered swept wings with large leading edge root extensions (or LERX).

All the configurations described have flown (if only very briefly) on full-size aircraft, except as noted.

Some variants may be duplicated under more than one heading, due to their complex nature. This is particularly so for variable geometry and combined (closed) wing types.

Note on terminology: Most fixed-wing aircraft have left hand and right hand wings in a symmetrical arrangement. Strictly, such a pair of wings is called a wing plane or just plane. However, in certain situations it is common to refer to a plane as a wing, as in "a biplane has two wings", or to refer to the whole thing as a wing, as in "a biplane wing has two planes". Where the meaning is clear, this article follows common usage, only being more precise where needed to avoid real ambiguity or incorrectness.

Fixed-wing aircraft can have different numbers of wings:

A fixed-wing aircraft may have more than one wing plane, stacked one above another:

A staggered design has the upper wing slightly forward of the lower. Long thought to reduce the interference caused by the low pressure air over the lower wing mixing with the high pressure air under the upper wing; however the improvement is minimal and its primary benefit is to improve access to the fuselage. It is common on many successful biplanes and triplanes. Backwards stagger is also seen in a few examples such as the Beechcraft Staggerwing.

A tandem wing design has two wings, one behind the other: see Tailplanes and foreplanes below. Some early types had tandem stacks of multiple planes—see the article on multiplanes.

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