  What's in a Winglet?: Inside the Epic Quest To Build a Better Airplane Wing Winglets predate the Wright brothers, but it took nearly a century for the idea to go mainstream. By Eric Tegler
When Boeing's new 777X taxied out for takeoff for its first flight earlier this year, it shared the look of most modern airliners. Its long fuselage was flanked by two massive engines under its long wings—the tips, known better as "winglets," turned up in familiar fashion.
This is just the latest chapter in a 120-year-long quest to create a better airplane wing. Today, Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Gulfstream, Bombardier, and other manufacturers produce multiple aircraft types with winglets, but as recently as the late 1990s, you rarely saw winglets on passenger aircraft.
Here's what gave rise to the little-known-but-immensely-important winglet.
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Minggu, 05 Juli 2020
What’s in a Winglet?: Inside the Epic Quest To Build a Better Airplane Wing
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