I knew it was coming...

[FlyTexas]

...and now it's here. *sniff* My poor beloved winglets.
http://www.blogsouthwest.com/split-scim ... e-arrived/

Brian

[airboatr]

A bit late for April's fools ... nice try though



ps

What the heck?

[dodger]

Hi,

I do like this bit,

"With the new winglets, the -800’s wingspan will increase about five inches"

i could do with something like that!!!

NO, i was thinking about a new Monitor

Roger.

[Chris Trott]

The split winglet is definitely a unique design. Now to just get rid of the awful "Sharklet" rip-off that doesn't even look decent.

I originally was saying that the Winglet was going away because the MAX used the raked wingtip, but it looks like Boeing announced a while ago that they're using a version of the split winglet now on the MAX - http://www.airlinereporter.com/2012/07/ ... x-winglet/

[TSR2]

It will always be a 737 and now amount of tinkering with the tips will make it look attractive

[Kevin Farnell]

One thing that has been puzzling me lately is that the P8 Poseidon (a derivative of the 737-800), features a raked wingtip whereas the 737 has the winglet and now the split winglet.
With the 777 and 747-8 also featuring the raked wingtip, I assume these are optimised for long range cruise. So why have the two different 737/P8 wingtip designs?
Can't say that I like the split design - looks deformed. The P8 wingtip looks good.

Regards

Kevin

[TobyV]

Had it been the other way around it might have made more sense (to me at least). As I understand, the winglet itself adds weight. On longer journeys, the reduced drag from the reduced tip vortex means the fuel required to be burned and carried is a lot less, so the extra weight of the winglets are more than compensated for. On shorter journeys, this might not be the case. Now question is whether the rakes wingtip adds the weight too. As it does not bend around the corner, I suspect it may not require the same amount of wing stiffening and of course the other factor is its impact on the dynamic behaviour of the wing (flutter). Taking my first point, I'd compare it to the standard duties of the two aircraft (which I why I am puzzled since I would have though Poseidon spends hours over the sea whereas the regular 737 might be making shorter hops

Getting a bit out of my depth at this point, because I just design turbine blades

[Chris Trott]

One of the main reasons the Aviation Partners design took off with the B737 is that it did not require any modification to the wing. It was and is a pure bolt-on. The winglet itself weighs about 100 pounds (if not less now that they've gone to CFRP instead of Fiberglass), and it's designed to offset its own weight, meaning that even on a 1 hour flight, it's still gaining on fuel efficiency. Southwest resisted the Winglet for a long time, but Boeing and AP finally convinced them to try them on a 737-300. They flew it for a month and ordered all their aircraft be retrofitted and changed their remaining NG's to have winglets because the fuel savings were that significant, even on the old wing. The idea of the new winglet is that it not only gives a drag reduction, but increases the total lift, resulting in an even further improvement in efficiency.

The funny thing is, Boeing proved that the winglet was an advantage on all operations back in the early 1980's on their KC-135 testbed, but no one wanted to believe them because they thought the plane looked silly. Who looks silly now?

[airboatr]

I knew it was coming.