Wingtip Vortices: They’re One of the Costs of Lift

Swirling columns of air slowly trail downward behind an airplane—yours included.

Jim Wolper

Friday, August 15, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Wing tip vortices exist any time an airplane’s wing is generating lift.[Courtesy: Bernal Saborio]

Key Takeaways:

Wingtip vortices are an invisible and hazardous form of wake turbulence, generated by any lifting wing, with the strongest ones coming from heavy, slow, and clean aircraft during takeoff and landing maneuvers.
These vortices can cause severe upsets, particularly for smaller aircraft, and require pilots to consider the preceding aircraft's movements in four dimensions (space and time) to anticipate and avoid them.
Pilots can mitigate the risk by flying above or upwind of a preceding aircraft's flight path, adjusting takeoff and landing points accordingly, and remaining vigilant, as realistic training for these encounters is challenging.

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When people want to talk about something unpleasant, they often invent nicer-sounding phrases to disguise what’s really going on. “Wake turbulence” is the kind of term that can bring to mind vague, unpleasant imagery. “Wingtip vortices” sound nicer—more refined, perhaps—but actually may be more frightening.

The FAA’s definition in its Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK, FAA-H-8083-25C) doesn’t help much: “The rapidly rotating air that spills over an airplane’s wings during flight. The intensity of the turbulence depends on the airplane’s weight, speed, and configuration. Also referred to as wake turbulence. Vortices from heavy aircraft may be extremely hazardous to small aircraft.”