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What is the main purpose of winglets on commercial airliners?
Winglets are vertical extensions of wingtips that improve an aircraft’s fuel efficiency and cruising range. Designed as small airfoils, winglets reduce the aerodynamic drag associated with vortices that develop at the wingtips as the airplane moves through the air.
How do winglets affect lift?
Winglets affect the part of drag called induced drag. As air is deflected by the lift of the wing, the total lift vector tilts back. Induced drag can be reduced by increasing the horizontal span or the vertical height of the lifting system (i.e., increasing the length of the TE that sheds the vortices).
What do winglets look like?
The ad is on the upward sloping mini-wing on the tip of the wing, called a winglet. The tips of airplane wings are adorned with all manner of winglets, sometimes featuring a distinct curve, like the Airbus A350 or Boeing 787. Passenger jets without winglets, in fact, are becoming increasingly rare.
Do winglets reduce drag?
Designed as small airfoils, winglets reduce the aerodynamic drag associated with vortices that develop at the wingtips as the airplane moves through the air. By reducing wingtip drag, fuel consumption goes down and range is extended.
How many types of winglets are there?
4 different types
There are 4 different types of winglets available for the 737 as follows: 737-200 Mini-Winglets. 737 Classic/NG Blended Winglets. 737 NG Split Scimitar Winglets.
How much does winglet cost?
Winglets cost anywhere from $500,000 for a 737 to more than $2 million for bigger planes. But the payoff can be rapid. Southwest Airlines estimates that it saves 54 million gallons of fuel every year thanks to equipping 93 percent of its fleet of 737s with winglets.
What are types of winglets?
Airliners
- Wingtip fence.
- Canted winglets.
- Blended winglets.
- Raked wingtip.
- Split-tip.
Why do airplanes have curved wing tips?
Winglets make airplanes more efficient by creating lift, which means that the aircraft requires less power from the engine. The invention helps mitigate the effects of ‘induced drag’, which occurs when the air pressure is lower on top of the wing than it is under the wing.
Why did the Wright brothers use curved trailing edges on wings?
The Wright Brothers used curved trailing edges on their rectangular wings based on wind tunnel results. The outstanding aerodynamic performance of the British Spitfire of World War II is partially attributable to its elliptic shaped wing which gave the aircraft a very low amount of induced drag.
Why do long span wings have lower induced drag?
So wings with a long span and a short chord have lower induced drag than wings with a short span and a long chord. Lifting line theory shows that the optimum (lowest) induced drag occurs for an elliptic distribution of lift from tip to tip.
How do vortices form at the tips of aircraft wings?
Near the tips of the wing, the air is free to move from the region of high pressure into the region of low pressure. The resulting flow is shown on the figure by the two circular blue-grey arrows with the arrowheads showing the flow direction. As the aircraft moves to the lower left, a pair of counter-rotating vortices are formed at the wing tips.
How does induced flow affect the angle of attack of wings?
The effective angle of attack of the wing is decreased by the induced flow of the vortices and varies from wing tip to wing root. The induced flow produces an additional, downstream-facing, component of aerodynamic force of the wing.