Conserving Energy: Wingtip Sails

Series

Series Name

Living Tomorrow

Issue

Issue No.

238

Length of issue (in feet)

524

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Conserving Energy: Add-A-Car
2. 2Conserving Energy: Heat Pumps
3. 3Conserving Energy: Wingtip Sails

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 3

Summary

COI synopsis: Our resources of fossil fuels are dwindling fast, yet our demands for energy seem to be ever increasing: bigger, thirstier planes; greater quantities of fuel burnt just to keep us warm; and more and more fuel greedy cars. This programme looks at some new ideas for reducing our overall energy needs, in the air, in the home, and on the roads. The ultimate flyers - birds - display strange wingtip feathers when landing or taking off. A British plane designer wondered why, and believing that nature usually got it right, he fitted similar wingtip sails onto a plane’s wing. Windtunnel tests, followed by tests in the air, are showing that this simple addition can, curiously enough, reduce the drag on the wing. It makes the wings more efficient - and the planes less thirsty especially at take-off or landing.

Researcher Comments

Story also appears in ‘Living Tomorrow No. 305’

Keywords

Aviation; Aircraft; Science and technology; Birds; Engineering; Energy resources; Design

Written sources

COI Microfilm Roll 55 [BFI National Archive]   Used for synopsis

COI Reference

MI 1458/238

Credits:

Sponsor

Central Office of Information (COI)

Sponsor

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Cutter

Fred Goodland

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

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