Airbus is testing these new winglets on the A320, and I believe that there will also be blended winglets similar to the 737 and 757 winglets, and they will be testing to see which one has better results.
At first glance when I saw the pics on A.net I thought it was an Embraer. Those new winglets fooled me. They don’t look at all like the “Airbus” winglets.
Which ones do you like better Embraer winglets or Airbus?? I don’t know if I should say this but I like the Airbus. These new ones are not that nice looking to me. I thought the same thing when I first saw it.
Technically speaking, those “Airbus winglets” aren’t winglets at all. They’re called “wingtip fences,” but I believe the original principle was the same: a little more lift, little better mileage, etc. The success of the 73G-739 winglets made Airbus consider this option. I saw a pic of the first “test” plane w/ them a few months back. I think B6 was the main force pressuring Airbus to experiment w/ them, as they have to make fuel stops on E-W transcons when the jet stream is especially strong.