An aileron (French for 'little wing') is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of

the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the
aircraft in roll (or movement around the aircraft's longitudinal axis), which normally results in a
change in flight path due to the tilting of the lift vector. Movement around this axis is called
'rolling' or 'banking'.
The aileron was first patented by the British scientist and inventor Matthew Piers Watt Boulton in
1868, based on his 1864 paper On Arial Locomotion. Even though there was extensive prior
art in the 19th century for the aileron and its functional analog, wing warping, in 1906 the United
States granted an expansive patent to the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio for the invention of a
system of aerodynamic control that manipulated an airplane's control surfaces. Considerable
litigation ensued with the United States over the legal issues of lateral roll control, until World
War I which compelled the U.S. Government to legislate a legal resolution.