To save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs and improve aircraft capabilities, the Air Force should retrofit its existing large aircraft with winglets. The U.S. Government faces a situation today that is similar to one it faced during the 1970s: growing instability in the Middle East that is contributing to the towering price of oil. As oil prices have escalated, so have political demands to decrease America's reliance on foreign oil. One way to conserve energy is based on a NASA aeronautical engineer's research during the 1970s on 'winglets.' Dr. Richard Whitcomb's research showed that adding winglets to large aircraft decreased fuel consumption by 3 to 6 percent. Unfortunately for winglet technology, oil prices plummeted during the 1980s and remained low throughout the 1990s, distracting the government's energy conservation priorities and burying the winglet concept for large military aircraft. The concept remained dormant for over two decades until soaring energy prices once again brought improving aircraft aerodynamic efficiencies to the forefront of the energy conservation debate. The data collected here display the overwhelmingly positive arguments for retrofitting the Air Force's existing transport-type airframes with winglets.


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    Induced Drag and Winglets

    Eppler, R. | British Library Online Contents | 1996


    Drag-Divergence Characteristics of Winglets

    Yuhara, Tatsunori / Kubota, Kazuhiro / Rinoie, Kenichi | AIAA | 2018


    BIFURCATED CONJUGATED WINGLETS

    GRATZER LOUIS B | Europäisches Patentamt | 2019

    Freier Zugriff

    DOWNLOAD REDUCING WINGLETS

    DONALDSON KENT E / SMOLAREK KYLE / ESCHETE LYNN FRANCIS | Europäisches Patentamt | 2021

    Freier Zugriff

    Wing extension winglets for tiltrotor aircraft

    ANDERSON ADAM BRYANT / IVANS STEVEN RAY / CHAVEZ JEREMY ROBERT | Europäisches Patentamt | 2019

    Freier Zugriff