What does the airplane tail do?

Question

It’s intuitive that the horizontal extrusions (like the wings) would help with stability, but what about the vertical one, extruding upwards from the back?

How does it interact with the wind and help keep the plane steady? If anything, wouldn’t that surface be “pushed” over by the wind, like a sail? And does it serve any other purposes?

In: 3

Answer 1

The vertical fin is behind the center of mass, and behaves like a dart’s fin. It pulls the rear end of the plane backwards if it begins to misalign with the direction it travels. This prevents a flat spin, where the plane spins like a frisbee.