Difference between Boeing, MD and Airbus winglets?

earthman · Post by **earthman** » 10 Oct 2005, 21:18

What I meant is whether someone could choose to remove them for, say, a week, when the aircraft is flying short routes, and then put them back on for longer routes.

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 10 Oct 2005, 21:23

Sorry misunderstood your question

Personally I don't see why they couldn't do that. In fact they even fly sometimes with one winglet instead of two

But I don't think that it's economicaly viable to take them off for a short period (one week). Yes you could maybe save a little bit in maintenance costs and in fuel, BUT to remove them and to attach them again you would need to pull the plane off its schedule for quite a few hours. And as you know it's very expensive to keep a plane on the ground, even for a few hours.

Just my 2 cents though.

Chris

bigjulie · Post by **bigjulie** » 15 Oct 2005, 19:29

Winglets provide bette aerodydamic capabilities.
:shakehead: I can not see how having winglets effects the 80m box; winglets go up straight, or at a bit of an angle, they don't increase the actual outward wing length.

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 15 Oct 2005, 19:38

bigjulie wrote: :shakehead: I can not see how having winglets effects the 80m box; winglets go up straight, or at a bit of an angle, they don't increase the actual outward wing length.

Winglets most of the time don't go up at an angle of 90° with respect to the wing. Look at the A330 or A340 winglets. Now when the angle is smaller then 90° the span of your plane will automatically increase by a factor of cos(a)*l (of l is the length of the winglet and a the angle).

Chris

bigjulie · Post by **bigjulie** » 16 Oct 2005, 01:46

Fair enough, point taken.

sacha · Post by **sacha** » 16 Oct 2005, 10:32

Jense wrote:The winglets on the 744 don't spare any fuel, they're only used for
a) advert
b) design
.

are you joking, jense?

teddybAIR · Post by **teddybAIR** » 17 Oct 2005, 18:25

Just wondering because you guys say the favourability of winglets depends on the average lenght of the routes:

What is the wheight of winglets actually? Is it so much that it is worhtwhile to remove them sometimes?

Was just wondering

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 17 Oct 2005, 18:32

teddybAIR,

To give you and idea, the added weight on the B737 by installing the winglets is 480 pounds.

I don't know the exact weight for bigger planes.

Chris

Jense · Post by **Jense** » 17 Oct 2005, 18:36

sacha wrote:
Jense wrote:The winglets on the 744 don't spare any fuel, they're only used for
a) advert
b) design
.
are you joking, jense?

No I wasn't, sacha. And maybe it's better to read the whole topic before posting this quote.

EDIT: and if this wasn't clear enough, time has come to quote myself:

Jense wrote:@ Avro
Sorry mate, I was wrong. It's the MD-11 who uses more with winglets than without.

(I was mixing them up, appologises

earthman · Post by **earthman** » 17 Oct 2005, 19:24

Avro wrote:teddybAIR,

To give you and idea, the added weight on the B737 by installing the winglets is 480 pounds.

I don't know the exact weight for bigger planes.

Chris

Does most of this go into wing reinforcement? Some time ago I saw the 'winglet guy', who attaches the winglets to the 747. Those winglets are really light, the guy could easily lift one with one hand. No way a winglet would weigh 240 pounds almost all by itself.

teddybAIR · Post by **teddybAIR** » 17 Oct 2005, 19:29

@ Avro:

Thx! I would never have expected those winglets to wheigh that much!!! Are they made of composite material?

Just on a side note: i think the 737 is far more sexy without them winglets

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 17 Oct 2005, 20:03

earthman wrote:
Avro wrote:teddybAIR,

To give you and idea, the added weight on the B737 by installing the winglets is 480 pounds.

I don't know the exact weight for bigger planes.

Chris
Does most of this go into wing reinforcement? Some time ago I saw the 'winglet guy', who attaches the winglets to the 747. Those winglets are really light, the guy could easily lift one with one hand. No way a winglet would weigh 240 pounds almost all by itself.

One winglet of a B737 weighs 132 pounds (~ 60 kg)
now the 480 pounds are for the entire plane which means 240 per wing -> This again means that the attachment mechanism weighs 108 pounds.

Those are only approximate values I don't know the real ones.

And yes AFAIK the winglets are made of composite materials.

Chris

earthman · Post by **earthman** » 18 Oct 2005, 17:25

Heavy stuff.. Boeing claims that due to the use of composite materials the 747 wing with winglets actually weighs less than the original wing. Guess the 737NG already used composites in the wings?

vc-10 · Post by **vc-10** » 18 Oct 2005, 20:56

Why does the MD-11 have those cool little ones underneth the main winglet? It makes it really cool, especially in Martinair livery (o/c)