Just Look How Much Airplane Wings Flex in Crosswinds

The winglettes (wingtip vertical section, whatever the correct term is) look huge to me. Is it just the perspective, or have I not been paying very close attention?

A B52 bomber doing a crab landing because of cross winds is typically all in a days work

Frankly the wing flexing in those videos doesn't seem so bad to me.

I've been through turbulence where the wings looked like they might snap off. But I've seen videos of that wing-bending test, and the amount of flex those wings can take before they snap is mind-boggling. Way more than they'd ever experience in the worst of storms.

As for the wings, that was nothing. Typical Gizmodo. Good workout for the landing gear, though--but even there, poor and repetitive film editing.

Wings that don't flap, fall off.

Crabbing is good in a crosswind. It lets you use the runway.

Gizmodo sucks.

This is nothing. They should have been around when we were testing super flexible aero-elastic wings at NASA in the 1970's. They were so flexible they looked like "Galloping Gertie", the famous bridge over the Tacoma Narrows that destroyed itself.

Or, watch a B-52 wing at takeoff. The wing has so much droop they have retractable wing wheels (which also keep the aircraft from tipping over) and the wingtips rise about 8 feet before the plane leaves the ground.

On this video I'm much more impressed at the abuse the landing gear take.

Hooker

Of course there are some other examples with wings that flex a lot.