Wingtip vortices

It's very, very simple.

Remember, with wingtip vortices, we are getting drag, an increase in drag and a decrease in airspeed right here, right? However, when we get within about a wingspan of the ground, so when the airplane is coming down to land and it gets within about a wingspan's length of mother earth or of the runway, right? What happens with those wingtip vortices is that they're getting blocked by the surface.

So instead of whipping around the wingtips here, they're actually getting blocked by the surface of the earth.

So they're hitting the surface of the earth and they're dissipating out.

And because of that, what happens is, is we lose that drag right here.

That drag that was affecting us when we were a little bit higher, once we get down now, the wingtip vortices are getting blocked by the surface.

This drag is no longer here.

So we're going to get a kind of like a sudden increase in lift and the sudden increase in airspeed.

However, the wings in the way, but at the wing tips, this high pressure can actually kind of swirl out and around the wing tips to equalize with the low pressure above.

And it creates what are called wingtip vortices.

What this does is this high pressure that comes out and around the wingtips connects, hits the top of the wing and causes drag.

It essentially pushes down on it or it creates some turbulence right here at the wingtip as well.

Okay? All right.

Now, some aircraft will put...

Well, winglets here on the side that go up, down, and that is actually to block some of these wingtip vortices.

It gives you a little bit better fuel efficiency because you're getting less drag, a little bit better flight characteristics and everything if you do have those.