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University of Bristol, BS8 1TR, United KingdomA novel mechanism is described that increases the critical buckling load of the rear wing of joinedwing aircraft, in an effort to reduce structural weight. The benefits of the joined-wing configuration are briefly discussed, along with its current limitations. The behaviour of the modified structure under lift is investigated by conducting a number of linear structural analyses for varying geometric arrangements. It is shown that the mechanism, called the Buckling Alleviation Component (BAC), is effective in reducing structural weight for a significant proportion of aircraft geometries, even though there is a trade-off between rear wing buckling load and front wing root bending moment. A more detailed structural model is used to investigate the effect of geometric structural nonlinearities. The nonlinear analysis shows that the BAC delays the onset of nonlinear behaviour and that the critical buckling loads of the conventional configuration are drastically overestimated by the linear analysis, which means that BAC performs much more effectively than the initial linear analysis suggests.