Trusted by millions of consumers Airlines with your life every day, but only a few passengers Understand how these giant flying tubes are formed stay in the air and why They look the way they look. I don’t remember jets having winglets when I was a kid, but on a recent business trip I became aware of the winglets on all aircraft in the US Airport. Winglets are the vertical tips at the end of an aircraft wing and perform several important functions.
Winglets reduce the size of an aircraft aerodynamic Reduce drag by approximately 5 percent by reducing the vortices, or swirling wind, around an aircraft’s wing edge. These vortices form when the air flowing along an aircraft’s wings curls upward as a high-pressure zone forms below the wing and a low-pressure zone forms above the wing. When these two opposing pressure systems form and the air moves toward the wing tip, a small pressure is created tornado This creates air resistance and wastes energy. Winglets prevent the high pressure airflow under the wing from meeting the low pressure airflow at the top of the wing, reducing drag. According to CNN,
In 1897, British aerodynamicist Frederick W. Lancaster patented “wing endplates,” vertical surfaces attached to the ends of wings to prevent airflow from below and above from meeting, thereby reducing drag. “Endplates act similarly to winglets in many ways, but the improvement in lift is rather poor because flat plates themselves are not very good aerodynamic surfaces,” explains Bowers.
The idea was refined for modern aircraft in the 1970s by NASA engineer Richard Whitcomb, who envisioned vertical wing extensions inspired By the way, birds roll up the ends of their wings when they need lift.
Whitcomb tested the idea in a wind tunnel and found that winglets could achieve a reduction in drag of about 5%. At the same time, winglet research was conducted independently of NASA, and business jet manufacturer LearJet was the first to incorporate winglets into a real aircraft in 1977. Two years later, NASA flew for the first time an Air Force KC-135 test aircraft – not unlike a Boeing 707 aircraft – equipped with nine-foot-tall winglets. During 47 test flights, NASA confirmed Whitcomb’s wind tunnel results.
Winglets can now be seen in most small and medium-sized aircraft in the world larger aircraft Use sloped wingtips that sweep back more dramatically than the rest of the wing. These sloped wingtips are more efficient for larger aircraft while still providing comparable wingtip vortex suppression characteristics and comparable fuel savings to winglets. In addition to fuel savings, both winglets and sloped wingtips improve the aircraft’s directional stability and reduce the aircraft’s susceptibility to turbulence.
These seemingly simple improvements in aviation have saved billions of gallons of fuel, meaning further cost savings for airlines fewer CO2 emissions from air travel. These little winglets serve a big purpose, and next time you fly, you can use this little wealth of knowledge to attack your rowmates.