Engineering Tricks in Modern Planes

Modern airplane wings are true feats of engineering with all of the designs and breakthroughs that have gone into manufacturing them.

In just over 100 years airplanes have gone from single propellers with fabric stretched over wooden wings to the flying metal behemoths we know today. For most planes, the overall shape hasn’t really changed: engines facing forward, tail facing back, wings sticking out on both sides, and hopefully at least a few wheels on bottom.

But one of the parts that have arguably changed the most are the wings.

While modern wing design might seem smooth and simple, hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into optimizing them to be as efficient and reliable as possible.

From the Wright brother's first plane to the behemoths like the Boeing 737 MAX, we’ll be looking at some of those biggest changes.