by RitterKreuz » Thu May 24, 2007 5:01 pm
Without going into long drawn out explainations...
Whenever a wing generates lift there is a high pressure area below the wing and a low pressure area above the wing... during these two pressure systems attempt to equalize with one another the wing is pushed upward creating "lift".
BUT at the wing tip this high pressure air below the wing is able to actually reach the low pressure air by "spilling" from the bottom to the top of the wing, this creates a vortex of spiraling air sort of like a horizontal tornado that trails behind the wingtips for quite a distance - a few miles in some cases. this is called "wingtip vortices" or "wake turbulence". these cause large amounts of induced drag, and are an invisible hazard to any aircraft that may be flying behind the generating aircraft.
Winglets are placed on aircraft so that the amount of air that causes the wingtip vortices to occur is greatly reduced, because it creates a barrier preventing the unwanted airflow and reduces the flow of air from bottom to top of the wings at the tips.
because of this reduction to the wingtip vortices drag is reduced, fuel burn is reduced, and hazard to following aircraft is reduced making winglet equipped aircraft more efficient.
Last edited by
RitterKreuz on Thu May 24, 2007 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
