Jul 18 1979
From The Space Library
NASA announced it would test a modified U.S. Air Force jet July 20 at DFRC to see if winglets (9-foot airfoil sections) attached to wingtips of a KC-135 could improve performance and save fuel. Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb, LaRC's inventor-engineer, had had the idea of using normal drag from a wingtip vortex as lift to improve performance. NASA would vary the winglets' cant angle and incidence between test flights to measure effects of different positions; DFRC had already flown the plane without winglets to obtain baseline measurements for comparison. (NASA Release 79-94; DFRC Release 2779)
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