What are winglets?

Introduction
Have you ever noticed that a Boeing 737's wing tip has a bend? It looks as if the wing was bending and breaking apart, but guess what? Those bends are actually to our benefit! They are called winglets or wingtips. They are used to reduce drag during takeoff, landing and cruise.On the right is a close up on a 737-800's winglet or wingtip device.

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Benefits
Winglets or wingtip devices offer many benefits. As said before, they reduce drag during takeoff, landing and cruise. That means that instead of making longer wings, wingtips can solve the problem! It also means that airlines can save money on extra fuel costs because more drag means more fuel consumption by their aircraft. On the right is a Norweigan Airlines Boeing 737-800 Wingtip device.

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Money
Adding winglets to aircraft will also make them stand out more to airlines to buy as airlines know that the winglets can reduce drag and save the airline fuel costs. They don't just save little money, it is said by the National Aeronautics and Space Association (NASA) that winglets save billions of dollars in fuel costs.

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The simple but smart airplane example
We've all made a paper airplane we we've always known to fold the wing tip into something that looks like a winglet. We've done it to know that it can make the paper airplane fly farther but have never bothered to know why? It works in the same way as on an airplane. It reduces drag put on the wing tips.

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Downsides
Winglets may seem all good, and a bit too good to be true. But of course, anything has downsides. If a winglet is not designed or put on well, it can cause catastrophic indifferences to airflow and cause extremely bad consequences.

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Good enough
Some wings are simply already enough efficient and adding the winglets would be less efficient for the airplane. For example, a 787-9 does not have winglets because the wings are already efficient enough and the weight of the winglet added to the wing would cause more drag than if there was no winglet. In some examples, wings would have to be strengthened to hold the winglets, which just was not efficient enough so winglets were not installed.

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Longer wings?
In some cases, manufacturers need to increase the length and strenght of the wing to house the winglet which would cause many problems. Extra weight would only be a little issue. Airflow and angle of attack disruption would be a big problem.

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Winglet breakage?
Although this has only happened occasionally, it has happened. Winglet breakage is when a winglet breaks apart from the wing, or is damaged by something. When it happens, the consequences are catastrophic.

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Mid-Air Breakage
If a winglet breaks mid-air, then the drag on one side of the plane increases while the other side is fine. Then the aircraft will start to veer to the side where the winglet broke. This can cause the plane to go out of control if the pilot does not react in time. .

Wingclip
When two aircraft's wings make contact, usually on ground, it is called a wing clip. This usually results in winglet damages which usually cost airlines alot because they must remove the entire wing.