There are some 28,000 commercial flights every day in America, which get nearly three million passengers safely to their destinations. Flying is the safest way to transport your tuchus from one locale to another, and over a century of innovations, safety regulations, and practices have gotten us here. One of the safety devices that allows planes to operate quickly and efficiently is one that you might not have noticed, despite it being right there in plain sight. It’s the tail support stand, and these orange and yellow sticks placed between a plane’s tail and the ground might seem self-explanatory, but there’s way more to them than you’d think.
I have so many stories to write from my time at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2026. It was my favorite year yet; not only did I get to ride in a Goodyear Blimp again, but I also got to take part in a formation flight of three Douglas DC-3s! You can check out my existing coverage by clicking here, but I want to talk about something that has racked my brain for years.
Something I did not expect was to get up close to a device I had only seen from afar for years. Often, the commercial airliner I’m on is rolling out to a runway at Chicago O’Hare International Airport or toward a gate at a destination airport when I look out my window and see an aircraft with an orange stick more or less stuck into its tail. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to at least guess what these sticks do, but that has never been good enough for me. Southwest Airlines brought its Boeing 737-800 “Freedom One” to AirVenture and slotted into its tail was a support stand. I was shockingly excited to look at the little orange thing.
I’ve always wondered why the tail support stand is needed. Why is it that only some aircraft need it? Then, since I love history, who on Earth even came up with this invention? As it turns out, there was a lot to learn about these seemingly self-explanatory poles.
Planes Rely On A Safe Balance Of Weight
First, let’s have a flying lesson.
Every airplane has a center of gravity. This is the point where the aircraft’s weight is balanced. In theory, if you held the aircraft at this point, it would sit perfectly level. If you want to learn how aircraft engineers might determine the center of gravity of their design, click here to read a very nerdy explanation by NASA. Thankfully, there will be no math for this story.
An empty aircraft has a determined center of gravity, but you can easily shift the center of gravity simply by sitting in it. Cargo, fuel, and passengers will also alter an aircraft’s center of gravity. In practice, pilots encounter two kinds of center of gravity. Trust me, I’m going somewhere with this.
When the aircraft’s center of gravity is forward, be it due to the aircraft’s design or how it was loaded, the aircraft will want to pitch down while in flight. This is due to the fact that the weight is balanced forward of the center of lift of the wings. As the wings generate lift, the nose wants to sink. The nose that constantly wants to go down can help in stall recovery. An aircraft with a forward center of gravity also has better longitudinal stability. Conversely, a forward center of gravity requires nose-up intervention from the trim system or the elevator, which increases drag and fuel burn. The pilot also increases the aircraft’s angle of attack (the angle at which the relative incoming air meets the chord line of the wing), which increases the stall speed.
The other way around is an aft center of gravity. In this situation, the center of the aircraft’s weight is closer to the center of lift, or perhaps even behind the center of lift. By placing the weight closer to the center of lift, less intervention is needed from the horizontal stabilizer, which means less drag, less fuel burn, and a decreased angle of attack. Conversely, the aircraft can have less longitudinal stability, which may make it more responsive to control inputs, but also harder to recover from a stall.
Center of gravity matters a lot on the ground as well. As I said before, every aircraft has a center of gravity, and that center of gravity changes between loaded and empty states. Depending on an aircraft’s design, the empty center of gravity might be more forward or more aft than it is when it is loaded for flight.
It’s not as simple as just designing an aircraft to have a center of gravity in the middle when it’s empty. Engineers have to consider where the engines are placed, where the wings are placed, and how the passengers or cargo will be loaded. If, for example, you have a rear-engine aircraft like a Bombardier CRJ, it’s naturally tail-heavy before you add any fuel, cargo, or people. You may notice that some rear-engine designs place their main landing gear further back than you might find on an airliner of similar size, but with underwing engines.
Aircraft also have a range of center of gravity baked into their design that permits a safe operating envelope. That way, there can be variations in passenger, cargo, or luggage loading and the aircraft remains safe. However, it’s possible to get into situations where the flight crew needs to intervene. If a flight has nothing but people ticketed in the rear seats, for example, that will throw the balance off. The crew has levers they can pull, such as moving luggage or cargo forward. But if that is not enough, or isn’t possible, flight attendants may ask you to move to a forward seat before departure.
This is also part of the reason why the aircraft doesn’t immediately leave after the cabin door is closed. The crew runs their final weight and balance checks, making changes where necessary. Commercial airliners have enough space in their cargo holds to manipulate balance just by moving heavy luggage or cargo around.
Tail Sitting
Basically, any changes to the aircraft, such as the removal of its engines or cargo and passenger loading, can cause an immediate shift in the center of gravity, and potentially to the rear. Picture an aircraft’s center of gravity as a see-saw in a playground.
If that shift is great enough, there may no longer be enough weight to keep the nose planted on the ground. That can result in what some call “tail tipping” or “tail sitting,” where the balance is so far off that the tail hits the ground, leaving the nose eerily in the air. Just like a heavier kid sending a lighter kid into the sky on a see-saw.
Tail sitting is a risk that’s mitigated across commercial aviation. When freighters like cargo variants of the Boeing 747 are loaded, the cargo isn’t just shoved into the aircraft and sent into the sky. Cargo is usually placed into standardized containers or on pallets, both known as Unit Load Devices, which get weighed.
This cargo is then strategically placed in the aircraft to ensure that the aircraft will be within weight and balance regimes when loaded. Still, during loading and unloading, there’s a lot of weight rolling around the aircraft, which can throw it off balance, potentially to the rear.
In a commercial aircraft, the deboarding process offers its own challenges. Since aircraft are deplaned from front to back, the center of gravity shifts rearward as more passengers leave. Baggage crews combat this by removing bags from the rear of the aircraft first while deboarding is in progress, but there are situations in which the plane would still be too rear-heavy.
The Boeing 737 is susceptible to potentially tail-sitting as stretched variants like the Boeing 737-800, 737-900, 737-900ER, the MAX 9, and the MAX 10 are on the tail-heavy side of the equation. But the long Boeings aren’t alone here.
You’ll find Cessna 208 Grand Caravans, Douglas DC-8s, Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers, McDonnell Douglas MD-11s, ATR turboprops, Bombardier turboprops, De Havilland Canada Twin Otters, Airbus A300s, and even Airbus A320 series aircraft can get tail-heavy in some situations. There are others I’m not listing.
So far as I can tell, this has been a known phenomenon throughout pretty much all of aviation history. The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II of the 1950s was known for getting tail-heavy at times, so was the early 1950s Martin 4-0-4.
The Stick That Keeps The Wheels On The Ground
Thankfully, engineers have had a solution for this for most of aviation history, and it’s called the tail support stand. Its function is simple. If there’s a possibility of the plane doing an uncommanded wheelie while sitting still, support the tail with a metal pole or stanchion. An aircraft might need a tail support stand during loading and unloading, or during maintenance, such as engine removal procedures.
As I noted above, some aircraft are a bit more tail-happy than others. So you might see more stretched 737s and freighters rocking tail support stands than Airbus A321s. It all depends on each individual situation. Of course, there’s a high chance that you won’t even notice a tail support stand being used, as you’ll be on the plane when the stand is in place, and it might be gone by the time that you check.
The tail support stands themselves are fascinating. These aren’t just poles that you shove into the back of a plane. The stand that was inserted into the back of Freedom One was a device from Hall Industries. It’s designed to support the tails of extended Boeing 737s, or, more specifically, up to 9,000 pounds of weight from the tail of a stretched 737. It weighs only 50 pounds, despite how much weight it can take.
The device is telescopic with one tube over another, almost like a pogo stick or like a car’s shock absorber. In the case of the Boeing 737, the tail support stand is inserted into a port at the back of the aircraft before it is loaded or unloaded. The stand then supports the aircraft’s tail, compressing under weight. Some designs might have locking pins or collars to tighten the tubes.
Here’s a video showing a ramp agent installing a stand. Click here if you do not see the video below:
In the case of the Hall Industries tail stand that was used during AirVenture, when the stand is extended out, it’s in its installation or uninstallation zone. When the tail is putting weight on the stand, it’s compressed and in its loaded red zone. Hall Industries notes that attempting to remove the tail stand with the aircraft loading it down could result in injury or death.
This isn’t the only kind of stand that’s out there. Some stands don’t go into special ports, and instead just cup a lower portion of the tail. Some stands resemble the jack stands that you use for your car, only scaled up. Some extra-large stands may also sit on tripods.
Others may look like scaffolding. But the one you’ll likely see at your airport will likely be of the “pogo stick” variety that I just discussed. As for where the stands go when you aren’t looking, that depends. Some stands stay at the airport and wait for the next plane. Some are carried onboard so the aircraft can have a stand wherever it lands.
Additionally, there are other ways to keep the rubber on the tarmac. In some cases, an aircraft’s nose gear might get physically tethered to the ground to limit tipping.
Some aircraft with rear ramps or stairs that can be locked into place can sometimes just use that as a support stand.
If you’re on board an aircraft that could tip over during unloading and a tail support stand will not be used, there is an alternative method to preventing a tip. The flight crew may delay deboarding until enough bags can be removed from the rear of the aircraft. Of course, all of this is done in the name of safety and efficiency. Passengers can be injured when the aircraft tips over, and potential damage to the tail can cause an expensive headache for the airline and an annoying delay for you.
Great Engineering In Plane Sight
Sadly, I wasn’t able to answer all of my questions. I wasn’t able to figure out who the first person was to come up with this idea. Nor was I able to figure out the earliest implementation of it. However, I did find examples of aircraft and even drones going back 80 years with some sort of tail support for loading or maintenance operations.
But what I did find has been exciting. The tail support stand is another part of what makes aviation so exciting to me. Every bit and piece, no matter how small, works to keep us all safe while we leave the ground in a metal tube to fly at over 30,000 feet at over 500 mph. Even a simple orange or yellow metal stick can be a big deal in making this all happen like clockwork.
So, the next time you fly and happen to get a window seat, be on the lookout for a tail support stand. You’ll probably see one lodged into the back of a Boeing 737, but there’s a whole world of aircraft out there that could use a tail stand in certain situations. Now you know why. Some planes are a bit heavier in the rear than others, and sometimes, loading and unloading procedures might make things tippy if it weren’t for those simple sticks.
Top graphic images: Korean Air Cargo; Mercedes Streeter
