The Aerodynamics of Winglets

This video explains the aerodynamics of winglets and how they arrived to commercial aviation.

Have you ever wondered why the tips of the wings of an aircraft are curved up? It turns out that those wingtip devices are called winglets and are used to reduced aircraft's fuel consumption. When the wing of aircraft produces lift, by creating a pressure difference between the upper and lower surface, the high-pressure air at the bottom tends to sneak onto the top of the wing. This produces turbulent wakes called wingtip vortices and that decrease the performance of an aircraft through what is called induced drag. There are many ways to reduce induced drag. One of them is by designing longer wings, since these reduce the size of wingtip vortices. Another solution was found by Richard Whitcomb, a NASA engineer, during the 1080s: the winglets. Wingtip devices or winglets simply reduce induce drag by decreasing the size of those wingtip vortices. Although they are not always advantageous, and if designed improperly, can even decrease an aircraft's performance.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Wingtip vortices
1:31 Induced drag
2:30 Background
3:01 Winglets
3:35 Disadvantages
5:09 Conclusion

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Credits:

Script and Production: Lucas Ferrando

Videos by StoryBlocks.com

Music by BendSound.com

Sonex Waiex-B video: Stirling Brandt
https://instagram.com/waiex_md?igshid...

Image of Winglet of A350XWB:
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/meda...

Image of HA 137:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Video of wingtip vortices:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

Image of A320:
https://www.clipartmax.com/middle/m2i...

Image of Whitcomb in the Wind Tunnel:
https://airandspace.si.edu/sites/defa...

Image of MD11 in the Wind Tunnel:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacom...