Double-take on a double-edged winglet

Who came up with the dual-feather blended winglet concept that Boeing revealed earlier today?

Boeing says it owns the intellectual property on the split wingtip design for the 737 Max.

But that claim was only made because three different reporters asked about the technology's ownership in a teleconference this morning programme manager Beverly Wyse and chief engineer Michael Teal.

That's probably because the similarity with the already unveiled Aviation Partners winglet is too much to ignore. Aviation Parnters chief executive Joe Clark proudly showed off his new winglet design about six months ago at the NBAA annual convention.

Boeing's released images so far appear to show a few differences. Boeing's lower feather seems to end at a straight edge, while the Aviation Partners design curves slightly. There also seems to be more convex shaping in the upper feather of the Aviation Partners wingtip.