NASA Airliner Wing Vortice Tests

very cool to actually be able to see them like that

everytime that big clock arm goes round 360° one second passes..

Part 2

The greater the vacuum, the greater the vortex. The vacuum sucks not only the surrounding air into itself but also the moving object which created it. This is one component of drag, the other being the friction of the air against the surface of the object. Overcoming the drag consumes power (i.e. fuel).

Part 1.

LTF85199, Firstly it takes energy to set air spinning. Secondly there is a 'tail vacuum' - that is to say planes (and fast cars) travel fast enough that the empty space left by the object cannot be instantaneously filled by the air that it displaced. As the air rushes to fill the vacuum it spins, just like water going down a plughole (function of terrestrial coriolus force).

cessna pilots beware!

it doesnt necessarily generate drag, it has its effects on aircraft behind it. by reducing the wake turbulence you improve a lot of different things. when you see winglets, they reduce wake turbulence

It changes the relative wind to a down and back condition. It comes from the high seeking the low on the top of the wing and strikes the top of the wing. This is why most airplanes have some sort of device on the wing tip to prevent the air from coming around..ie. winglets.

yes I am an expert, you see there is little known about wingtip vortex because we cannot see it. so we dont realy know the true answear to this. But for example if i was flying behind in my small aircraft lets say my piper pa-38 tomahawk I want to be at least 3 minutes behind this larger aircraft. Id actualy want to give it greater distance if I could. And remain up wind of its flight path and shoot ahead of its landing point.

I'm surprised big airports dont' have some kind of "wake turbulence" windsock to help detect these things. Anyways, the FAA concluded that it takes about 5-6 minutes for the wake turbulence to fully dissolve from a boeing jetliner. Smaller prop plane turbulance usually last around 30-2mins.

the trailing edge wingtip vortices have a small downward component called DOWNWASH.....the downwash induces a drag on the lifting wing.....so called INDUCED DRAG......