An airplane without a horizontal tail but with a horizontal winglet in front of the wing. The winglet in front of the wing is called the front wing or canard. The front wing can be composed of a fixed part and an elevator like a flat tail (or a full-motion front wing), which plays the role of pitch control and balance; It is also possible to use only the fixed front wing, in which case the pitching control of the aircraft is completed by the lift aileron at the trailing edge of the wing.

Generally, when the angle of attack increases, the aircraft will produce bow moment, which needs the moment of negative lift of the horizontal tail to balance it. On a canard plane, the balance moment consists of the additional positive lift of the canard. At high angle of attack, the horizontal tail reduces the lift of the whole aircraft; Duck wings can increase the lift of the whole plane.