swingtail

English

Etymology

From swing +‎ tail.

Noun

swingtail (plural swingtails)

1. A hinged tail section on an airplane that can open up, providing access to the interior of the fuselage.
   • 1961 October, Richard B. Weeghm, “Aviation Fuel”, in Flying Magazine, volume 69, number 4, page 107:

     During the flight to California to deliver the first swingtail to Flying Tiger Lines, Coe cruised at 12,000 to 16,000 feet, indicating 278 knots for a true airspeed of 398 mph.

   • 1965, JA Soulsby, “The Shannon free airport scheme: A new approach to industrial development”, in The Scottish Geographical Magazine, volume 81, number 2:

     As Wheatcroft has pointed out the development of new all-cargo freighters is essential for economic progress, so with the introduction of the swingtail Canadair CL 44 D4 freighter and another all-cargo service by Pan American Airways shipments by air should improve.

   • 1999, I Lobo, M Zairi, “Competitive benchmarking in the air cargo industry: Part I”, in Benchmarking: An International Journal, volume 6, number 2:

     Their first flight took the company's CL‐44 swingtail freighter to Hong Kong in September 1970.

   • 2008, K Poechlauer, CA Vyeson, “The 747-400 Dreamlifter-Swing Tail Door Alignment and Latch Mechanism”, in SAE International Journal of Aerospace, volume 1, number 1:

     Two other interesting configurations also considered were a removable tail and a vertical swingtail.

   • 2013, Robin Higham, Speedbird: The Complete History of BOAC, →ISBN, page 221:

     It then made a study which eventually convinced the Board that a temporary solution was to lease Canadair CL—44s, a swingtail version of the Britannia freighter which Sir Miles Thomas had tried to order in 1952.

Anagrams

• tail swing, tailswing