Aerodynamic and Structural Design of a Winglet for Enhanced Performance of a Business Jet

The preliminary design of a winglet to improve the range and fuel burn of the Falcon 10 business jet is presented. Twelve candidate geometries were studied varying the cant angle and the span. The configuration offering the best compromise between induced drag reduction, profile drag increase and weight increase due to the winglet structure and necessary wing structural reinforcement was selected. More refined analysis was performed for that winglet with Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis. Range and fuel burn were finally calculated for a typical mission using these refined results. The selected winglet, with a span of 3.219 ft, a cant angle of 45° and a sweep angle of 40° increases range by 3.3% and saves about 3.8% of fuel on a 1200 Nm mission