<P> An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") 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' . </P> <P> The modern aileron was invented and patented by the British scientist Matthew Piers Watt Boulton in 1868, based on his 1864 paper On Aërial 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 within the United States over the legal issues of lateral roll control, until the First World War compelled the U.S. Government to legislate a legal resolution . </P>

Where are the ailerons located on a plane