All of these systems are used to control the plane in mid flight. They can be twisted or turned with hydraulics, which is the use of liquid pressure, or steel cables. The rudder can be found in the tail wing of the airplane, called the Vertical Stabilizer. You may have seen the rudder, its around 5-10 meters wide, and before a plane takes off, it usually moves left or right, to test if it is working. The larger the aircraft is, the more Rudders it has. The boeing 747 has 2, which are divided ca. 5-8 meters above the bottom one. Sometimes small airplanes even have a rudder in the rudder, such as the the P58 Mustang. The rudders change the flight direction, but it does not change it by rolling, it just twists the plane one direction or the other. This movement is called the Yaw, and if it Yaws right or left, it means it turns left or right without rolling.

The elevators are found in the 2 back wings of the plane (called the Horizontal Stabilizers) and they change the pitch of the plane. This means it makes it go at a higher or lower altitude. Pilots can change the angle of the elevator and control the speed to its cruising altitude.

The Aileron can be found at the FAR side of the plane. I said this because many people confuse the Aileron with the flaps. The Aileron is the closest "Flap" towards the wingtip, or winglet. This controls the plane steering into a roll. Without it, it would be really hard and it would take a long time to turn. If it is actually gone from the airplane, the chances of you crashing are really high, so the Aileron is really needed to steer the plane.

Hope this helps!

Source: Nasa

Control aircraft flight

Elevators are the hinged control surfaces on the back of the horizontal stabilizer on the tail of an aircraft. They are used to control the pitch.

The rudder is the hinged control surface on the back of the vertical stabilizer. It is used to control the yaw, or side-to-side motion of the plane's nose.

V-tail aircraft like Bonanzas or the YF-23 combine these into control surfaces known as ruddervators.

Ailerons are the control surfaces on the outboard trailing edge of the wings, with control the plane's roll. This is actually what does most of the steering in the air.

Elevators control the pitch (up down). The rudder yaws the aircraft sliding the plane whilst in the air, or steering whilst on the ground. The ailerons are on the wings. The move in opposite directions banking the plane left or right.

Any question that makes you think is a good question. Because of your question I noted there are two types of elevators associated with Aircraft. The difference is, mechanically, one is dedicated to linear displacement and the other is angular displacement. They both achieve the same result but for return on energy expended, one is linear and the other is exponential.

I know I will get some flak for this from the trolls and sadly I don't check answers or get notified so I'll leave it to the SME's to straighten them out.

Elevators: raise and lower the pitch attitude

Rudder: changes the plane's attitude right or left

Ailerons: change the bank angle of the wings.

One, two, or all of them, may be used for a particular maneuver.

An example: if the pilot wishes to make a coordinated turn to the left, while descending:

- the ailerons are used to bank the plane to the left; and the rudder is used to make the tail of the plane follow the curve of the turn.

- the rudder is used to lower the nose and descend.

They are used for controlling the aircraft in flight and they are collectively called "flight control surfaces". Here, read and learn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_control_surfac...

They are used to stear a plane.

An elivator moves the plane's nose up and down- yu push in on the stick (the down direction in a game) and the elevators point down and the nose goes up and the plane climbs.

A rudder is to move the nose left and right <- -> it is controlled by pedals.

Then the ailerons roll the wings left and right you move the stick to the right and one aleron drops the other one pops up and your plane rolls.

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I hate these people who go on yahoo to tell you to use google- I just hope they are payed well for this spam. If you liked google- You'd be there instead of yahoo- and if you felt like looking something up - you would have typed in the terms and done a search yourself.

Here's a suggestion for you. If you REALLY want to know about airplanes, then instead of posting stupid questions on an internet Q&A forum... GO READ A BOOK! Who knows... You MIGHT possibly learn something useful.

Steering, climb and descent,