NASA innovations are ubiquitous in modern commercial airplane design. These include the up-turned ends of wings known as winglets and wing shapes that maximize efficiency at high speeds. The result is safer, faster air travel that saves billions of dollars in fuel costs each year.
Every air traffic control tower and aircraft flying in the United States today benefits from NASA-developed technology in some way. Streamlined aircraft bodies, quieter jet engines, techniques for preventing icing, drag-reducing winglets, lightweight composite structures, software tools to improve the flow of tens of thousands of aircraft through the sky, and so much more are an everyday part of flying thanks to NASA research that traces its origins back to the earliest days of aviation.