How Wing Cuffs Work

Rob Mark

Friday, May 11, 2018 at 06:00 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Stall-spins and loss of control have been the largest factor in fatal general aviation accidents for over 40 years, prompting ongoing efforts to improve safety.
The leading-edge wing cuff is a low-cost modification designed to improve stall-spin resistance by causing the inner part of the wing to stall before the outer section.
This design maintains lift and controllability in the outer wing at high angles of attack, preventing abrupt wing drops and making stalls and spins more benign and recoverable.
Developed by NASA in the late 1970s, the wing cuff has been adopted in modern aircraft (e.g., Cirrus SR20/SR22) and contributed to a new category of "spin-resistant" aircraft certification, enhancing safety without significantly affecting performance.

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“Stalls and spins represent the largest single factor in fatal general aviation accidents.” Surprisingly, this quote wasn’t pulled from the latest FAA news release, but rather from a NASA Langley Research Center newsletter dated April 1977. Forty years later, stall-spins and loss of control remain pinned to the top of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Most Wanted List of safety improvements. That doesn’t mean no one has tried to reduce the number of LOC-I fatalities.