• CFD
• drone
• winglets

The document’s purpose is to analyze the aerodynamic effects that a wingtip device and in particular a winglet could have on the drone SX1.2 of XSun. Once the winglet’s literature has been reviewed, the essay focuses on the research of the best way to conduct the design exploration via CFD analysis, in order to choose the most effective wingtip geometry and then to study the parameters that impact its shape and efficiency. It is important to notice that a tip device needs to be optimized and customized for the particular wing, otherwise the impact could be detrimental. The analyzes carried out lead to the conclusion that for the cruise flight of SX1.2 the most effective winglet design parameters are the span and the cant angle. The optimisation campain lead to a winglet configuration enabling a power consumption decrease of about 10%. The winglet configuration is also investigated from a structural point of view with FEM analysis, in order to couple additional weight estimation and structural stress to the aerodynamic analysis. At last, a winglet prototype is realized and the comparison between real flight and CFD analysis validates the power consumption decreasing.