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Winglets

Why Do Planes Have Winglets?

· 3 min read

Winglets are the upturned tips at the ends of an aircraft's wings. They tame the swirling vortices that form there, cutting drag and saving fuel. Here's how they work.

Winglets are the small, often upturned surfaces at the very tips of an aircraft’s wings. They look like a design flourish, but they earn their place: a good winglet trims drag and saves fuel on every single flight. To see why, you have to look at what happens at the end of a wing.

The problem: wingtip vortices

A wing generates lift because the air pressure below it is higher than the pressure above it. At the wingtip, those two pressures meet — and the high-pressure air underneath curls up and around the end of the wing toward the low-pressure air on top.

That curling flow spins off the tip as a wingtip vortex: a tight, invisible tornado of air trailing behind each wing. Creating those vortices wastes energy, and that wasted energy shows up as a specific kind of drag called induced drag. The stronger the vortex, the more fuel the aircraft burns just to hold its speed.

The fix: a wall at the tip

A winglet acts like a wall standing in the way of that curling air. By making it harder for the high-pressure air to spill over the top, the winglet weakens the vortex and spreads the lift more evenly out to the tip.

The result is measurable:

  1. Less induced drag — a weaker vortex means less energy thrown away, so the engines work a little less hard.
  2. Lower fuel burn — the saving is usually a few percent over a full flight, which is significant across thousands of flights a year.
  3. A bit more effective wingspan — the winglet does some of the work a longer wing would, without the extra length that might not fit an airport gate.

Not every aircraft needs one. Some very efficient modern wings are shaped to control the vortex on their own, and use a smooth raked wingtip instead of an upright winglet.

Winglets, sharklets, and split tips

You’ll hear different names for the same idea. Sharklet is Airbus’s term for the blended winglets on its A320 family. Boeing fits blended winglets and, on some 737s, a split scimitar design with a surface pointing both up and down. They all chase the same goal: tame the wingtip vortex.

What you’ll see on the radar

Winglets don’t change how a flight appears on the FlyOverhead radar — a jet with them cruises at the same kind of altitude and speed as one without. But next time a plane passes overhead, look at the wingtips: those upturned fins are quietly saving fuel on every kilometre it flies.

Frequently asked

What are winglets for?

Winglets reduce the drag caused by wingtip vortices — the swirling air that spills around the end of a wing. Less drag means lower fuel burn, typically a few percent over a flight, which adds up across an airline's fleet.

Do all planes have winglets?

No. Many modern jets have them, but plenty of older or smaller aircraft do not. Some designs use a raked wingtip or a blended sharklet instead, and a few very efficient new wings need no add-on at all.

What is the difference between a winglet and a sharklet?

They do the same job. 'Sharklet' is Airbus's brand name for the blended winglets it fits to the A320 family. Boeing uses names like 'blended winglet' and 'split scimitar'. The physics is the same: control the wingtip vortex.