Showing posts with label folding wingtip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label folding wingtip. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2015

Boeing going with flapping wings

Well, not quite.  The redesign on the 777 (big, twin aisle, twin engine) goes with a longer wingspan.  Presumable they wanted some more lift, to lower the landing speed.  If the wing is larger, it will generate enough lift to keep the plane in the air as it slows down to land.   A lower landing speed is safer, these are awfully big and heavy vehicles to go careening onto the runway at 150 mph. 
   Trouble is, air port taxiways, laid out years ago, are only so wide.  And so, Boeing is planning on folding the wingtips to ease the 777X into its gate..  Like WWII carrier airplanes.  Only the outer 11 feet of the wing is planned to fold, complete with hinges, actuators, and locking pins.  This opens variety of comedy moves, should the aircrew forget to fold the wingtips before taxing in and hit all sorts of things. 
  Wow.  talk about mechanical complexity.  Let's hope it works.  It probably will.  It's not more complicated than those wonderful Boeing flaps, which come out, and out, and full flaps actually converts the aircraft into a biplane.