Combined noise shield and thrust reverser

In an aircraft having a fuselage, wings, a tailplane and two laterally spaced fins above the tailplane, the provision of a plurality of jet propulsion engines mounted on said fuselage substantially above the level of said wings and generally aft thereof, an engine housing structure containing said engines, air intakes for said engines located forward of said engine housing structure at a level above said wings and not significantly aft of the trailing edges thereof such that the fuselage and wings provide a downward and partial sideways shield against noise emanating from said air intakes, and exhaust nozzles for said engines located to discharge into a common noise shielding duct defined at the sides by said fins and at the bottom by a fixed-incidence section of said tailplane between said fins, and wherein an upstream portion of said fixed-incidence tailplane section is deflectable in conjunction with a deflectable aft end portion of said engine housing structure to form a thrust reverser common to all engines, said deflectable portion of said fixed-incidence tailplane section being mounted to swing about a first transverse pivot axis intermediate the forward and aft ends of said tailplane section portion so that said forward end goes down and said aft end rises, and the deflectable aft end portion of the engine housing structure being mounted to rock up and back about a second transverse pivot axis until the aft end of said engine housing end portion substantially engages the up-tilted aft end region of the deflectable portion of said fixed-incidence tailplane section.