Twin-boom aircraft

A de Havilland Vampire T11 of the UK Vampire Preservation Group at the 2010 Cotswold Air Show.

A Cessna O-2 Skymaster.

The IAI Heron is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that features a twin-boom configuration.

A twin-boom aircraft is characterised by two longitudinal booms (extended nacelle-like bodies) fixed to its main wing on either side of its centre line. The booms may contain ancillary items such as fuel tanks and/or provide a supporting structure for external ancillary items. Typically, twin tailbooms provide mounting points for one or more tail surfaces, although on some types such as the Rutan Model 72 Grizzly the booms run forward of the main wing. The twin-boom configuration is distinct from twin-fuselage designs.

Transport aircraft

The twin-boom configuration allows a cargo door or large access door to be placed in the back of the aircraft, free from obstruction by the tail assembly. Examples include the C-82 Packet, C-119 Flying Boxcar, Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy and Transavia PL-12 Airtruk.

Combat aircraft

The twin-boom configuration has been adopted by combat aircraft designers for several reasons:

• To allow an engine to be mounted directly at the rear of a short fuselage, for pusher configuration or jet aircraft (Bell XP-52, De Havilland Vampire, Saab 21)
• To give an unobstructed field of view or field of fire to the rear (Focke-Wulf Fw 189)
• To accommodate twin inline engines having lengthy turbochargers in the most aerodynamically efficient and practical planform (P-38 Lightning, P-61 Black Widow)

General aviation

Some modern high-efficiency designs have twin booms which distribute the load along the wing span and/or stiffen the overall structure.

Examples include the Rutan Voyager, Rutan Model 72 Grizzly and the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.

List of twin-boom aircraft

References

See also

• Twin-fuselage aircraft

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