Winglets

[swflyer]

Airliners.net has some wonderful pics of SWA's new winglets at:

Inflight

Winglet and Tail

 

[Flying Titan]

Those winglets are so large they seem to overwhelm the plane. They just look odd to me, but from what I hear the performance improvements and the fuel savings are very impressive so we'll probably start seeing more and more 737s with these giant appendages!

 

[FWAAA]

Many, many years ago my friends and I would add winglets to paper airplanes - we discovered at a very young age that they appeared to enhance the lift of the wing. Nice to know that the aeronautical engineers working on commercial jetliners finally agree with us. B)

 

[coolflyingfool]

WOW!! They are tall! I saw N444WN in LAS on Friday night (10/17). It was parked at C25 and it was going to MDW, though I was not, DARN. It had all kinds of employees around the plane so I am assuming that it was the first time that plane was to LAS. I can't wait to see it in the daylight. B)

 

[CLT-Douglas]

For the pilots out there...

Can you tell a big difference with the winglets compared to an aircraft without the winglets in the way the plane handles or feels? Are there any added procedures with a plane that has them vs. a plane that does not?

Just curious, thanks!

 

[spanky]

I personally haven't notice a huge difference besides quicker climb, need to start descent earlier, and less fuel flow needed. Seems to fly the same. It lands better for me, but that's not saying much...