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 or radial engines having lengthy turbochargers in the most aerodynamically efficient and practical arrangement (P-38 Lightning, inline engines; P-61 Black Widow, radial engines)

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

Type	Country	Class	Role	Date	Status	Notes
Adam A700	USA	2003
Adam A500	USA	2002
Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy	United Kingdom	1959	Propeller	Transport
Bell XP-52	USA			Fighter	Prototype
Blohm & Voss BV 138	Germany	1937	Propeller
Cessna Skymaster/O-2 Skymaster	USA	1961	Propeller
De Havilland Sea Vixen	United Kingdom	1951		Fighter	Production
De Havilland Vampire	United Kingdom	1943	Jet	Fighter	Production
De Havilland Venom	United Kingdom	1952	Jet	Fighter	Production
Dyle et Bacalan DB-70	France	1929		Transport	One built	Airliner
Edgley Optica	United Kingdom	1979	Propeller	Patrol		Observation. Ducted fan.
Fairchild C-82 Packet	USA	1944	Propeller	Transport
Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar	USA	1947	Propeller	Transport
FMA IA 67 Córdoba
Focke-Wulf Fw 189	Germany	1938	Propeller
Fokker F.25	Germany	1946
Fokker G.I	Netherlands	1937	Propeller
Hanriot H.110	France	1933	Propeller	Fighter
Hughes XF-11	USA	1946		Patrol	Prototype	Reconnaissance
IAI Heron	Israel	1994	UAV
Lockheed P-38 Lightning	USA	1939		Fighter	Production
Nord Noratlas	France	1949		Transport
North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco	USA	1965
Northrop P-61 Black Widow	USA	1942	Propeller
PZL M-15 Belphegor	Poland	1973
Rutan Voyager	USA	1984
Saab 21	Sweden	1943	Jet
SAB AB-20	France	1932		Bomber	One built
Sadler Vampire	USA	1982
Savoia-Marchetti SM.91/SM.92	Italy	1943
Scaled Composites White Knight	USA	2002	Jet
Rutan Model 72 Grizzly	USA	1984
SIPA S-200 Minijet	France	1952	Jet
SPCA 30	France	1931		Light bomber	Prototype
Sukhoi Su-12	Soviet Union	1947
Sukhoi Su-80	Russian Federation	2001	Jet
Schwade Kampfeinsitzer Nr 2
Schweizer RU-38 Twin Condor	USA	1995
Transavia PL-12 Airtruk	Australia	1965
US Army RQ-7 Shadow	USA	1991	RPV
Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer	USA	2005

See also

• Twin-fuselage aircraft