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Originally Posted by Champcar  My dad always asks me what the winglets do and I just tell him that it reduces drag.
I don't understand it in depth yet but I see if at stoping the over flow of low pressure seeking high pressure. |
On a normal wing the wingtip vortices accumulate at the tip of the wing, causing induced drag on a portion of the wing causing that part of the wing not to produce any net lift.
Winglets move the vortices to the very tip of the winglet, allowing the entire surface of the wing to produce lift. It's like getting extra wing without any additional weight (except for what the winglet weighs) and without redesigning the entire wing. Winglets also change the patterns of the wingtip vorticies, spreading them out and reducing the kinetic energy the vortices have and that also reduces drag.