The feathers of an arrow or the tail fins of a bomb or rocket used to stabilize the longitudinal axis of the projectile parallel to the flight path
empennages
Hyphenation
em·pen·nag·es
Etymology
[ "äm-p&-'näzh, "e ] (noun.) 1909. French, feathers of an arrow, empennage, from empenner to feather an arrow, from em- 1en- + penne feather, from Middle French; more at PEN.