Why winglets work

Flying and the technologies that make it possible yield a wealth of content for the magazine, which makes for some truly fascinating reading: stories from over one hundred years of history and plenty of exciting features on topics with a bearing on the future of aviation, such as climate change, population growth and limited resources.

Our monthly e-mail newsletter keeps you informed about topics in the world of aviation. Free of charge and can be canceled at any time. MTU industrializes ceramic milling. Yes, for one airliner blended winglets save 54 million gallons of fuel. It not only means that we get cheaper flights but also less CO2 is made; slowing global warming.

Furthermore, split scimitar winglets are now the new hype and in the next few years with them being more and more widely accepted we can save much, much more. In this article we began by discussing how vortices form on wings. We then discussed how winglets produce a forward thrust, reduce the effects of vortices and how interference drag is such a nuisance. I then moved on to talk about how Spiroid and Split Scimitar winglets work and we touched base on simple diffusion knowledge.

To finish with we asked why small aircraft don't have winglets. Either way one looks at it; having winglets is far more efficient and fuel saving than without them. You need to log-in to rate articles. Looking for your store account?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used in this article. Good that's out of the way. What Do Spiroid Winglets Do? To Conclude In this article we began by discussing how vortices form on wings. Thank you for reading my article. Please leave a comment and a star rating. Safe Flying! Recommend This Article You need to log-in to rate articles. Related Articles. Log In to reply. Thanks for reading and commenting! Hope you learnt alot!

PeterGregory on May 21, Really good article, especially seeing how the split scimitar winglets work. I was wondering why we don't just slap winglets on the ends of all our wings on our models but it sounds like the effect is negligible. Yes, you're right. The effect is incredibly small and slight, but on large airliners that travel every hour of the day, the tiny percentage really begins to stack up. On the little planes, the benefits of having the winglets wont outweigh the downsides of having the extra weight.

Flite test for life! I didn't know that, that's pretty cool thanks! Thank you for reading it! It's my pleasure to share my knowledge to the FT community : Log In to reply. Could you go deeper into the different winglet shapes and their functions?

Firstly, yes sure ill work on it tomorrow. Secondly, the winglets on a flying wing a vertical stabilisers. They work like a tail fun on a plane; they stop a sideways slide and unwanted yawing.

Like winglets they reduce drag but those are not their sole purpose. It's funny I'm just now seeing this. The drag is created because the wingtip vortex has a lower pressure than the air passing over the wing. In fact, winglets of some shape or form are pretty much standard equipment on modern jets today, and some airlines are even retrofitting them to older aircraft too. There are other reasons for using winglets. For example, Aero Magazine argued that the branded winglets on the Boeing not only gives the airplane operational benefits by creating more efficient flight characteristics, but they also give it a distinctive appearance.

While their purpose is largely the same, not all winglets are created equally. Some of the most common shapes encountered include squared-off, rounded fences, floppy wingtips, and blended winglets, which are where they curve up from the wing gradually. They generate lift that is perpendicular to the relative wind, just like all other wings. The winglet would help to generate lift. If there are no wingtip vortices available, the winglet is not very helpful.

However, at the wingtip, wingtip vortices change the direction of the relative wind. This is because the vortices move upward and over the wing. A component of wind that flows towards the fuselage is added, which bends the relative wind inward. The lift vector points a little bit forward when the lift vector is drawn from the winglet.

Although it might be discouraging and it might not look like much, but that little bit of forwarding lift by the lift vector helps. This is because it is against the drag which is produced by the vortices when they are strong.

This means that when the winglet is at a high angle of attack during taking off and landing, the winglets reduce the drag. Interference drag is generated when older winglets attach themselves to the wing at almost a degree angle. Interference drag comes up whenever there are tight angles. Turbulence is created when airflow at these angles mixes, thereby creating drag. Blended winglets perform at higher angles of attack and this is because as the angles of attack increase, so also does the lift increase.

The cause of this is by the increasing relative pressure difference between upward and downward of the aerofoil shaped wings. Larger and larger vortices get stronger when more particles want to transfer downward , which is made by the increasing difference. The creation of vortices is incredibly inefficient and this is why winglets try to stop them from happening. In some cases, the pressure difference can be so powerful that it will make vortices turn off the fuselage.