No Winglets: What a Drag...Argument for Adding Winglets to Large Air Force Aircraft
Abstract
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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA490778
Entities
People
- Joel W. Safranek
Organizations
- Marine Corps University