Aviation Partners revealed its new blended split winglet design at NBAA, which it said is 40% more efficient than today's blended winglets.
Compared with the traditional blended design, the devices should provide an additional 2.5% reduction in drag above the 5-7% provided by basic blended winglets, according to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies the company has performed.
The latest design features an upper winglet and ventral strake, each punctuated by a scimitar that accounts for a 0.5% improvement in drag, said CEO Joe Clark. He is confident flight tests starting within the next five months on an as-yet unidentified business aviation aircraft will prove out the numbers: "On our last two projects, CFD predictions have been within one-tenth of 1% flight test results."
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| CEO Joe Clark said flight testing will begin soon |
Unlike the company's more extreme spiroid winglets, which Clark said reduce drag by 11%, the split winglets can be constructed using existing blended winglets rather than a wholesale replacement of the tip, as would be the case with the spiroid. Clark said the company flight-tested its spiroid design for 75h on the company Falcon 50 this year.
Source: Flight International
