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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) 更多...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Interesting. I am not an aeronautical engineer so this was a pretty good article for me.
Winglets were used on sailplanes starting sometime in the 80s if I remember correctly.
Rutan’s around the world voyager turned out to be more efficient without the winglets after one broke off and the other had to be shed early in the flight. It returned with more fuel than planned. The SR-71 and U2 had no winglets for a reason. They don’t help aerodynamics. Aircraft that have them are for esthetic reasons only. People think they’re cool.
Airlines don’t care whether winglets look cool or not, they care about saving money by saving fuel. Winglets do that. The squawked article quotes an unnamed airline CEO on the look of winglets: “You can put a piano out on the end of the wing - if it saves fuel, we don’t care.”
I remember Burt Rutan using winglets on his aircraft. Creator or copier?
Sesame street level aviation aerodynamics for the masses. Leaves the intelligent few wondering why the 777 has no winglets ;-)