The Boeing F-47’s Canards, Explained
When operating at the higher speeds, being maneuverable and agile is likely a greater advantage than being stealthy—making canards a vital, if imperfect, feature.
America’s newest sixth-generation warplane, the F-47, is going ahead with full production by Boeing. It’s been all the talk of the defense community since it was announced last week. Interestingly, one feature that everyone has pointed out—from U.S. based analysts to Chinese social media influencers—is the presence of canards on the F-47. This is a unique feature that other American warplanes have historically lacked.
Canards are small, forwarded-mounted wings or control surfaces located ahead of the main wings on an aircraft. They serve a variety of purposes depending on the design of the plane, but their primary functions are to enhance control, stability, and maneuverability.
What Canards Are Good For
Generally speaking, canards are useful for pitch control. They act like mini-elevators, contributing to the aircraft’s ability to pitch its nose up or down. Fourth-generation Eurofighter Typhoons notably have this feature. Interestingly, so does China’s Chengdu J-20 “Mighty Dragon” fifth-generation warplane, Beijing’s answer to America’s F-22A Raptor—though the Chinese plane has been impugned for having canards.
Proponents of the canard argue that they can generate greater lift (downward force) at the front, complementing or even replacing traditional tail elevators. This can make an aircraft much more responsive to pilot input, especially when operating at high speeds and during aggressive maneuvers.
When analyzing the use of canards on a Eurofighter Typhoon or Saab Gripen, canards clearly boost agility. They allow for quicker pitch changes and tighter turns, which is critical in dogfights or evasive actions. The forward lift they provide can also help the plane maintain control at higher angles of attack—when the nose is pointed sharply upward—preventing stalls.
What’s more, canards contribute lift ahead of the aircraft’s center of gravity, shifting aerodynamic load. This can reduce the workload on the main wings, potentially improving efficiency or allowing smaller wings for the same lift. In designs like the Rutan Long-EZ (a civilian plane), this also enhances stall resistance, as the canard stalls before the main wing, lowering the nose naturally.
What Canards Are Bad For
There are, however, stability tradeoffs.
In some designs, canards make an aircraft inherently less stable. This sounds counterintuitive, but can be a feature, not a bug. For modern fly-by-wire fighters like the Dassault Rafale, the plane’s instability is intentional—computers constantly adjust the canards and other surfaces, letting the plane pull off extreme maneuvers that a human pilot could not perform manually. In contrast, traditional layouts with rear tails prioritize passive stability.
The biggest gripe against the canards, though, is the way in which they cut down on the stealthiness of a warplane. Though stealth is not the primary function of the sixth-generation warplane system, it is a key feature—and canards add edges and surfaces that reflect radar. By contrast, stealth designs favor smooth, continuous shapes—think the smooth flying wing shape of the B-2 Spirit—over protrusions like canards.
Boeing’s Workarounds on the Stealth Issue
The War Zone aptly observes that “Boeing made other breakthroughs that can minimize [the impact of canards] while still retaining benefits,” such as the “use of advanced composites that can include frequency transparent structures with baffles beneath [that] can help defeat certain bands of incoming radar emissions, depending on how the canards are positioned at any given time.”
Another element that Boeing can include to reduce the loss of stealth due to the presence of canards on the F-47 is what’s known as “wing morphing.” As The War Zone explains, “wing morphing stands to make future airfoils more efficient, lighter, less complex, and even safer. But when it comes to military applications, they also have low observable qualities that could greatly benefit stealthy combat aircraft.” Canards could be seamless, continuously rounded structures that are edge-aligned to the general aircraft design. Indeed, if one studies the canard design on the early F-47 images, it appears to be far smoother and more angular than the canards found on its European or Chinese counterparts.
Learning to Live with Canards
Of course, the Air Force is keeping the specifications of the F-47 close-to-the-chest. We simply don’t know the details of what the Air Force is including in the design specifications of this bird.
And canards do improve performance on warplanes.
Sixth-generation warplanes utilize next-generation propulsion systems meant to make these birds go faster than other planes do. When operating at the higher speeds, especially if in a combat setting, being maneuverable and agile is likely a greater advantage than being stealthy—making canards a vital, if imperfect, feature.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / Raketenbastler.