Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics.airliners Path: news From: gregory@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Greg Wright) Subject: Re: objects on wing tips X-Submission-Date: Wed, 9 Dec 92 12:45:47 PST References: Message-ID: Approved: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Organization: The Boeing Co. (Aerodynamics) Sender: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM X-Submission-Message-Id: <9212092045.AA20037@bcstec.ca.boeing.com> Date: 10 Dec 92 00:52:14 PST I have a few questions for any of you passenger airplane gurus. Several years ago, the aeropspace industry introduced vertical flap-like things on the ends of their airplane wings. I've only noticed these on 'larger' planes such Airbus, 747-400 and MD-11. Q1. What is the technical name for these flap-like things? Winglets.... Q2. Are they mobile or fixed? Fixed on our airframes.... Q3. Do they only serve to stabilize the flight? They help to reduce the induced drag by preventing the wingtip vorticies from forming...well keep them from being as strong at the tips anyway. They also produce lift since they are not mounted absolutly vertical. In the same vain, they produce a little thrust. Q4. Why haven't they appeared on smaller aircraft? The weight. Also, in theory they have big effect on the reduction of total drag, however, this has not been the case. The effect is small enough that we put them only on the long range planes. This is why we removed them from the wings of the 747-400D, which was made for short hauls.. Q5. The ones I saw on the Airbus were shaped like a 'V' and symmetric with the wing tip, ie. one leg of the 'V' was above the wing and the other pointed below the wing. Whereas the ones on the 747-400 looked like extensions of the actually wing, but bent 90 degrees upwards. Why the difference? Same principle, just different methods. As the technology advances you will see many different devices designed to to the same thing. NASA flew a plane that had six or seven winglets, all at different angles to the freestream.... I would greatly appreciate any answers. -Cheers ________Greg Wright____________ High Lift Development | gregory@bcstec.ca.boeing.com | Aerodynamics | gregory@halcyon.com | |____uunet!bcstec!gregory_______| NOT A BOEING SPOKESPERSON.