Cars have no real counterpart to the airplane’s tail section. Boats do. A boat’s rudder turns the stern one way and the bow goes the other. An airplane’s rudder works in the same manner, turning the nose as needed to help guide the aircraft. In an airplane, this movement is called yaw.
The plane’s tail also has a horizontal rudder, called the elevator, that lifts or drops the tail, thus dropping or lifting the plane’s nose.
Why Do Different Aircraft Have Different Tails? (Video)
