One way to tell Boeing and Airbus aircraft apart is to look at the wingtips. The wingtips on the popular Airbus A320 family can also reveal which generation it is, as older A320s were originally built without wingtip devices. Many had fences added later before more modern Sharklets were developed. But why didn’t Airbus build its early A320s with wingtips, and then why did they change?

The answer to why Airbus took time to develop wingtip devices for A320s is somewhat complicated, but it follows the wider industry story of the evolution of wingtips and the development of stronger and lighter materials. All aircraft are a complex series of design compromises, and this tends to the wingtips. Here is what to know about why Airbus didn’t build the A320 with wingtips in the 1980s, and then why this all changed in the 2000s.

Why Winglets Were Developed

NASA says that « anyone who has made a paper airplane knows that folding the wingtips upward makes your plane look better and fly farther, though the reasons for the latter might be a mystery. » The firm then explains that aerodynamics are centered on two major forces: lift and drag. Lift is the force that enables the aircraft to fly, while drag is the resistance encountered as the aircraft moves through the air, and a large amount of drag is generated from the high pressure under the wing.

This causes air to flow up over the wingtip and spin off in a vortex. These vortices produce induced drag, and need to be avoided by other aircraft, which is one reason why aircraft avoid flying close to each other. Wingtip devices help to minimize the vortices and, therefore, the induced drag. The idea of wingtip devices has been around since 1897, when the British engineer Frederick W. Lanchester conceptualized wing end plates to reduce drag.

During the 1973 oil crisis, NASA and the aviation industry started to look for ways to reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency. A NASA study in 1976 found that winglets would reduce induced drag by around 20% and improve the overall aircraft lift-drag ratio by 6-9%. But it took time for the technology to develop.

One of the first commercial aircraft to come with wingtip devices was the updated Boeing 747-400 variant of the Jumbo family. The winglets allowed the 747-400’s range to be extended by 3.5%. The Soviet Ilyushin Il-96 came with winglets in 1988, and the A340/A330 was built with canted winglets in 1993/1994.

Why The Airbus A320 Family Wasn’t Built With Wingtip Devices

The A320 was launched in 1984, first flew in 1987, and entered service in 1988, when wingtip devices were being developed, but were not yet standard. While some business jets were using them successfully by that stage, it was much more difficult to integrate them with airliners that had much higher structural loads and long service lives. Also, wingtip devices come with penalties and risk. Airplane makers and the airlines that buy them are inherently conservative and risk-averse.

Wingtip devices increase the bending movement at the wing root, creating a structural penalty while also requiring stronger, but heavier, wings. This meant the wingtip devices came with a weight penalty, while also making the aircraft more difficult to certify. Airbus was also extremely sensitive to span limits, as wingtip devices increase the wingspan and can cause issues with the ICAO gate code. This is part of the reason why it later chose to use wingtip fences, as they don’t take up much room.

Another factor is that the A320 was optimized for short-to medium hauls, high cycle counts, and a high climb/descent fraction of flight. While wingtip devices would be useful, they have a greater benefit over longer flights, when aircraft are on cruise, and when fuel prices are higher. By the mid-1980s, the world had recovered from the 1973 oil shock, and it’s worth noting that Boeing didn’t put them on its Classic Boeing 737 either.

Why The Calculus Changed

However, time changes, and with it, so does cost/benefit analysis. By the 2000s, the cost of fuel had become volatile, and the prospect of 1-2% in fuel savings had become attractive. At the same time, the industry had better aluminum alloys, composite control surfaces, and stronger, but lighter, wing reinforcements to work with. This reduced the weight penalties. The technology of wingtip devices has matured with better wind tunnel data, better aeroelastic modelling, and more.

Another factor is that Boeing and Airbus constantly influence each other with one reacting to the other. Boeing had added blended winglets to its third-generation Boeing 737 NG. Airbus chose to go with the Sharklets design with its updated A320neo aircraft. These offered the benefits of allowing the aircraft to stay within ICAO gate limits, minimizing structural reinforcement, and being retrofitable.

The choice of wingtip also meant that Airbus didn’t need to redesign the whole wing. While NASA’s paper airplane analogy may give the impression that wingtip devices were a no-brainer from the get-go, the real world is much more complicated. In the real world, engineers had to account for their aircraft weighing hundreds of tonnes, the need for certification, and fatigue effects on the aircraft.

Retrofiting Older A320s With Sharklets

After the calculus flipped, not only did Airbus build new A320s with wingtip devices, but it also retrofitted older aircraft with Sharklets. In 2013, Airbus launched the Sharklet retrofit program for its in-service A320 aircraft. The retrofit included reinforcing the wing structure and adding the Sharklet. As a result, the retrofit lengthened the aircraft’s service life and reduced fuel consumption by up to 4%.

That increased fuel efficiency had the effect of extending the aircraft’s range by up to 100 nautical miles. At the time, Airbus said that over 4,000 A320 family aircraft were eligible for the retrofit. It started the retrofit with its A319 and A320 sub-models before moving on to the stretched A321, and, by mid-2024, component maker FACC announced that it had equipped the 2,000th A320 with Sharklets, saying that:

« In June 2024, FACC equipped the 2000th Airbus aircraft with Sharklets. The upwardly curved wingtips help to significantly reduce an aircraft’s fuel consumption. »

It is unclear how many older A320s continue to operate with the original, smaller vertical fins, known as wingtip fences. On January 9, 2026 (just hours ago as of the time of writing), easyJet announced plans to retrofit all of its remaining Airbus A320ceo aircraft with Sharklets. This shows the process of conversion as the world’s dwindling and aging fleet of older A320s still remains without Sharklets.

Folding Wings Could Be Next

The benefits of wingtip devices were known since the beginning of aviation, but it took decades for them to mature to the point that they became economical, given the engineering challenges and risks associated. The next technological wing leap could be folding wingtips. The aerodynamic benefits, and associated fuel savings, of having longer wings have long been known, but engineers are constrained by ICAO gate codes.

Boeing is about to introduce the first workaround with its 777X, which is coming with folding wingtips. Like wingtip devices, these come with a weight penalty, certification issues, and risk. The novel design may be contributing to the certification delays for the 777X, but, in a sign that they may become industry standard, Airbus is now said to be experimenting with folding wingtips on its clean-sheet Airbus A320 family successor.

It’s conceivable that Airbus could upgrade its A350 in the 2030s or 2040s with a lengthened wing and/or folding wingtips, and people might then be asking why the original A350s came without folding wingtips. With that being said, folding wingtips are not the only competing design, as there are also truss-braced wings (possibly with folding wingtips) and blended wing body aircraft (like JetZero’s Z4).

Sharklets Are Airbus’s Wingtip Of Choice

There are several types of wingtip devices, and there isn’t a single best shape, with each being a compromise. The classic Airbus solution was wingtip fences, which are small vertical surfaces extending above and below the wingtip. They are found on the A320ceo, A330ceo, A340, and A380, and t​here are specific reasons why the A380 wound up with fences. Newer Airbus aircraft, like the A330neo, A320neo, and retrofitted A320neos, feature Sharklets.

Boeing initially preferred blended winglets, which feature a tall, smoothly curved upward winglet, but later switched to split-scimitar winglets for its narrowbody aircraft. Blended winglets are found on the 737 NG, 757, 767, and early models of the 777, while the newer wingtips are on the 737 MAX and retrofitted 737 NGs.

On larger aircraft (777-300ER, 787, 747-8, 777X), Boeing’s modern solution is raked wingtips, which is the same solution Airbus settled on for its flagship A350, although that is a raked wingtip with Airbus-specific twists. There are still some aircraft flying with no wingtip devices, including older A320s without modifications, Boeing 737 Classics, and older widebodies like early 747s and DC-10s.