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Why modern airplanes have winglets
On average, an aircraft equipped with them can use up to 5% less fuel, and for a typical Boeing 737 commuter plane that can mean 100,000 gallons of fuel a year, according to NASA. The collective savings for airlines are in the billions of dollars. (edition.cnn.com) Mehr...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Winglets were used on sailplanes starting sometime in the 80s if I remember correctly.
Interesting. I am not an aeronautical engineer so this was a pretty good article for me.
Sesame street level aviation aerodynamics for the masses. Leaves the intelligent few wondering why the 777 has no winglets ;-)
They actually misquoted Maughmer "They help the climb, but they hurt the cruise"...
The phrase is targeted towards blended winglet and wing endplates, found on 737 NG and Airbus "Sharkets". They act like a surf on surfboards, and prevents high pressure under the wing mix with low pressure above the wing. Thus minimize vortex forming.
With those, planes will have a better coefficient of lift which means they can climb to thinner altitude faster.
Racked wingtip on 777 and 787 helps cruise by increase aspect ratio (wingspan vs wing area). Which helps reduces biggest drag component during cruise, the lift induced drag.
A350's twist is a mixture between racked wingtip and blended wingtip.
The phrase is targeted towards blended winglet and wing endplates, found on 737 NG and Airbus "Sharkets". They act like a surf on surfboards, and prevents high pressure under the wing mix with low pressure above the wing. Thus minimize vortex forming.
With those, planes will have a better coefficient of lift which means they can climb to thinner altitude faster.
Racked wingtip on 777 and 787 helps cruise by increase aspect ratio (wingspan vs wing area). Which helps reduces biggest drag component during cruise, the lift induced drag.
A350's twist is a mixture between racked wingtip and blended wingtip.
Yes, and the less-than-accurate description of a very common mainline aircraft as a “Boeing 737 commuter plane” is below the standards of Sesame Street.
The 777 does have raked wingtips which serve the same purpose
And so did the Spitfire..(Down to a sharp point in fact.) It served exactly the same purpose --minimizing the difference between high and low pressure on the wing's upper and lower surfaces and therefore minimizing the formation of vortices. Brilliant!
Also leaves a few wondering how much the insurance companies pay out to repair all the tip to tip damage incurred from winglets hitting each other on crowded taxiways, ramps and gate areas that we read about almost everyday? Used to be the big airplane wing passed over the smaller one and vice versa, Alas, no mas.