What is it about?
The airplane drag affect the fuel consumption and hence the operational cost. A major source of the drag is induced drag, which majorly occurs during the take-off and landing. The proposed fluidic winglet can be used to eject flow through the wingtips of an airplane, which proves helping in decreasing the drag, hence decreasing the operational cost.
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Why is it important?
The fluidic winglet can increase the aerodynamic efficiency of the wing, which is beneficial for reducing the operational cost. It can be operated only once needed, and it does not cause structural issues compared to the physical winglet.
Perspectives
In my opinion, although the fluidic winglet had a positive effect on the wing efficiency, I think the fluidic winglet will be better suited for smaller vehicles (such as UAV's), for two reasons; 1-Less power is needed to increase the wing efficiency for smaller, lower aspect ratio wings. 2-For smaller vehicles, the fluidic winglet could be a potential alternative to ailerons, since a change in the lift was observed at specific ejection angles.
Hessa Almarzooqi
Technology Innovation Institute
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ejection Flow Direction Effect on the Fluidic Winglet: An Alternative to Conventional Winglet, July 2024, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),
DOI: 10.2514/6.2024-4227.
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