Sunset at altitude on the short American Eagle regional jet flight from DFW to College Station this past weekend. It’s been a while since I’d ridden on an Embraer ERJ-145. Last time I was on one, it was before Continental Airlines and United Airlines merged in 2010. Most of my trips since then have been primarily on Southwest Airlines or Alaska Airlines, neither of which operate ERJ-145s. We’ve had a small number of flights on American, but they weren’t on the smaller regional jets. Note the four “teeth” on the front of the outer wing of the ERJ-145 regional jet. Those are little aerodynamic devices called “vortilons”. A small vortex (like a horizontal tornado) is generated by the tip of the vortilon that flows over the top of the wing. This vortex “energizes” the flow of air over the top of the wing which prevents the air flow from breaking away from the top of the wing- this would reduce the lift from the wing and make the wing less efficient. Those little vortilons make the ERJ-145’s wing more efficient. Now here’s the cool part. If you look at the front of a humpback whales flippers, you’ll see there are bumps on the front. It’s not a smooth line across the front of the humpback’s flippers. Those bumps are called tubercles and they serve the same exact purpose as the vortilons on the ERJ-145’s wing. Despite the size of the humpback, they are remarkably agile and they can turn sharply in the water to help them create bubble nets that herd their prey, krill and small fish, into a tight spot for feeding by the humpback. The tubercles on the leading edge of the humpback’s flippers generate little vortices that allow their flippers to be very effective in the water, just like how vortilons improve the efficiency of the ERJ-145’s wing in flight. Because airplanes dammit. #avgeek #aviation #aircraft #planeporn #KDFW #DFW #KCLL #CLL #TEXAS #airport #planespotting #instaplane ⠀ #Embraer #ERJ145 #Envoy #AmericanEagle #N610AE #instagramaviation #splendid_transport #instaaviation #aviationlovers #aviationphotography #flight ⠀ #AvGeeksAero #AvgeekSchoolofKnowledge #AvGeekNation https://www.instagram.com/p/CNY2LR-hlSB/?igshid=8ilhzkspey8t
