The folding wing tip is the most visible and prominent feature that makes the 777X stand
out from its predecessor. As the new carbon fiber wing has a longer (65 meters) span,
Boeing came up with the solution to fold the tips in order to keep the 777X within ICAO’s
Code E airport classification. Want to know about it?
Well, stay tuned to the video And watch the video till the end.
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And in today's video, we are going to discuss “The BOEING 777x FOLDING WINGTIP Explained.” So
without any further ado, Let's begin. With the 777x, Boeing is going to all the
trouble to create such a long wing for one simple reason: it allows the plane to be more
efficient as it flies. And the company has incorporated the folding, 11-foot-long tips
on each wing and managed the added weight and complexity that comes with such a feature
just to ensure the new airplane can fit at a standard airport gate. This would have severely
limited the airports to which it could operate, a problem is known all too well for operators
of the A380. By making the wingtips fold after landing, the
aircraft remains within the Code E limitations, opening a far greater range of airports around
the world to its operators. In the air, longer wings create less drag, explains Mark Drela,
a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “A wing pushes down on the air,”
he says. “The longer the wingspan, the more air it can push down on.” The mechanism has
been thoroughly designed and manufactured by Liebherr Aerospace.
It has a motor and rotating actuator that fits into the restricted confines of the wingtip.
When designing the system, Liebherr has used its experience from the primary flight control
actuators that also drive the leading and trailing edge devices on the 777X. The folding
mechanism reduces the span by 3.5 meters as soon as the aircraft has touched down after
landing and parks at the gate. Folding wingtips are nothing new;
in fact, they’ve been in use by military aircraft since WWII. However, this is the first time
they’ve been used on a widebody commercial aircraft. Boeing did, in fact, offer large
folding wingtips on the 777 when it was first launched, in order for it to fit at smaller gates,
however, no airlines purchased this option.
The FAA also required that “the folding wingtips and their operating mechanism must
be designed for 65 knots, horizontal, ground-gust conditions in any direction. Relevant design
conditions must be defined using combinations of steady wind and taxi speeds determined
by rational analysis utilizing airport wind data.” It specified that the folding wingtip
“is not a control surface.” “The wingtips must have means to safeguard against
unlocking from the extended, flight-deployed position in flight, as a result of failures,
including the failure of any single structural element. The wingtip latching and locking
mechanisms must be designed so that, under all airplane flight-load conditions, no force
or torque can unlatch or unlock the mechanisms. The latching system must include a means to secure
the latches in the latched position, independent of the locking system.
It must not be possible to position the lock in the locked position if the latches and
the latching mechanisms are not in the latched position, and it must not be possible to unlatch
the latches with the locks in the locked position”,
the May 2018 FAA document concludes. The company has tried to make the system fit as seamlessly
into existing operations as possible. Two giant General Electric engines, the biggest
commercial thrusters the company has ever made, speed the 777x through the air. The
large, GE9X engines are more efficient because a bigger engine can manipulate more air.
One way they accomplished that is by using composite materials, and another is by designing
it with fewer spinning fan blades than other engines: the GE engines on the Boeing Dreamliner
rely on 18 blades, the engines on existing 777s contain 22, but the new engines employ
just 16. Now that we've
come to the end of this video, I want to thank you for sticking with me,
and I'd love to know what you think of it. Just comment down below. Also, If you like
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