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Old 2nd Jun 2008, 17:39
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World of Tweed
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northport, NW England
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Dispatch Sans Winglet.

A Standard 744 is permitted to dispatch without a winglet but there is a penalty on MTOW. I think its in the region of 1000kg.

As for winglet weight - well the airfoils themselves might only be 70kgs but the structural weight added to strengthen the outer main spar to cope with the winglets bending moment is likely to be considerably more.

As I understand it the JAL/ANA 744Ds were constructed with the standard structure so that after serving half their life in the high-cycle but low hours shuttle operation they could be converted to a Longhaul config to use the remaining hours with the relatively low cycles associated with long haul travel.

Another point of interest is that to preserve the cycles on the landing gear most of the shuttle flying around Japan is done with the gear down.
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