Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small or rudimentary wing.
- noun A short, almost vertical stabilizing fin projecting from the tip of an aircraft wing.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A little wing.
- noun The pterygium, a lateral expansion on each side of the end of the rostrum, found in many weevils.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A little wing; a very small wing.
- noun (Zoöl.) A bastard wing, or alula.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun aeronautics A winglike structure at a
wingtip set at an angle to the plane of the wing designed to reducedrag by its effect on wingtipvortices .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In addition to new methods of providing service, Cessna is also expanding the types of support available through the company's Citation Service Network to include structural enhancements such as winglet installation for the Citation X and glass cockpit upgrades for a variety of early edition Citations.
Aero-News Network 2009
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E.g. I don't mind KC-135, since if you look at the info, it's not actually the KC-135 (a military tanker) that you're voting on, but rather the successful NASA winglet technology mission.
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Sharkey looked out the window, the sky was clear; the rainforest stretched out as far as the horizon, but there was a jagged edge at the end of the wing, where the five-foot-tall winglet was supposed to be.
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I don't wet the bed at night after reading stories about a new commercial aviation winglet development, airport scanner, or A380 toilet tender announcement.
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Sharkey looked out the window, the sky was clear; the rainforest stretched out as far as the horizon, but there was a jagged edge at the end of the wing, where the five-foot-tall winglet was supposed to be.
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The left winglet had torn away, leaving a jagged stump, the left wing had bent upward, and along its upper surface some of the skin was separating from the internal structure.
William Langewiesche on the Amazon air crash Langewiesche, William 2009
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A passenger came to the cockpit and said, “You know we lost a winglet?”
William Langewiesche on the Amazon air crash Langewiesche, William 2009
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To me they had the worth of the winglet of the gnat
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KRIS VAN CLEAVE, WJLA REPORTER: This is not what you want to see looking out the window of your already-delayed flight to Dallas, the winglet of your regional jet stuck under the wing of a much larger Airbus 319.
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Whatever fraction of a wing you have, there is a fall from which it will save your life where a slightly smaller winglet would not.
The God Delusion Dawkins, Richard, 1941- 2006
oroboros commented on the word winglet
The wing-tip device makes the wing more efficient by inhibiting the natural flow of air from the high pressure area below the wing to the low pressure area above the wing. This high-to-low flow is what generates the dangerous wing-tip vortex which can upset aircraft in the wake of the generating aircraft.
October 18, 2012
oroboros commented on the word winglet
Called a sharklet by the Europeans (Airbus).
July 20, 2013