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 leading cause of fatal general aviation accidents for over 40 years, prompting the development of the leading-edge wing cuff as a safety improvement.
The wing cuff is a low-cost modification that causes the inner part of the wing to stall before the outer part, maintaining lift and control near the ailerons, thereby preventing abrupt wing drops and making potential spins more benign and recoverable.
Developed by NASA in the late 1970s, this technology has proven effective in making aircraft spin-resistant with minimal impact on performance, leading to a new certification category and its adoption in modern general aviation aircraft like the Cirrus SR20/SR22.

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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.