Wingtip devices
In the foreground, a red blended winglet extends up from the port wingtip of a Boeing 737-800. In the background, a yellow wingtip fence on the starboard wing of an Airbus A319

Wingtip devices are usually intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft.^[1] There are several types of wingtip devices, and though they function in different manners, the intended effect is always to reduce the aircraft's drag by partial recovery of the tip vortex energy. Wingtip devices can also improve aircraft handling characteristics and enhance safety for following aircraft. Such devices increase the effective aspect ratio of a wing without materially increasing the wingspan. An extension of span would lower lift-induced drag, but would increase parasitic drag and would require boosting the strength and weight of the wing. At some point, there is no net benefit from further increased span. There may also be operational considerations that limit the allowable wingspan (e.g., available width at airport gates).

Wingtip devices increase the lift generated at the wingtip (by smoothing the airflow across the upper wing near the tip) and reduce the lift-induced drag caused by wingtip vortices, improving lift-to-drag ratio. This increases fuel efficiency in powered aircraft and increases cross-country speed in gliders, in both cases increasing range.^[1] U.S. Air Force studies indicate that a given improvement in fuel efficiency correlates directly with the causal increase in the aircraft's lift-to-drag ratio.^[2]

Early History[link]

Wing end-plates[link]

The initial concept dates back to 1897, when English engineer Frederick W. Lanchester patented wing end-plates as a method for controlling wingtip vortices.^[3] In the United States, Scottish-born engineer William E. Somerville patented the first functional winglets in 1910. Somerville installed the devices on his early biplane and monoplane designs.^[4]

Vincent Burnelli received US Patent no: 1,775,474 for his "End Plating Wing Tips" on August 26, 1930.^[5]

Hoerner wing tips[link]

Dr. Sighard F. Hoerner was a pioneer in the field, having written a technical paper published in 1952^[6]that called for drooped wingtips whose pointed rear tips focused the resulting wingtip vortex away from the upper wing surface. Drooped wingtips are often called "Hoerner tips" in his honor. Gliders and light aircraft have made use of Hoerner tips for many years.^[7][8]

Winglet on KC-135 Stratotanker with attached tufts showing airflow during NASA tests in 1979–1980

Winglet[link]

Gulfstream V model winglet flutter tests at NASA Langley transonic wind tunnel

The term "winglet" was previously used to describe an additional lifting surface on an aircraft, e.g., a short section between wheels on fixed undercarriage. Richard Whitcomb's research in the 1970s at NASA first used winglet with its modern meaning referring to near-vertical extension of the wing tips.^[9] The upward angle (or cant) of the winglet, its inward or outward angle (or toe), as well as its size and shape are critical for correct performance and are unique in each application. The wingtip vortex, which rotates around from below the wing, strikes the cambered surface of the winglet, generating a force that angles inward and slightly forward, analogous to a sailboat sailing close hauled. The winglet converts some of the otherwise-wasted energy in the wingtip vortex to an apparent thrust.

This small contribution can be worthwhile over the aircraft's lifetime, provided the benefit offsets the cost of installing and maintaining the winglets. Another potential benefit of winglets is that they reduce the strength of wingtip vortices, which trail behind the plane. When other aircraft pass through these vortices, the turbulent air can cause loss of control, possibly resulting in an accident. This possibility is greatest near airports and the minimum spacing requirements between aircraft operations at airports is largely due to these factors. Aircraft are classified by weight (e.g. "Light," "Heavy," etc.) in large part because the vortex strength is proportional (not linearly) to the amount of lift being generated by the airfoil. For this reason, wingtip vortices are typically most dangerous when an aircraft is at high lift coefficient and at a heavy gross weight. During takeoff, for example, flaps and slats are typically partially extended, the aircraft is at its heaviest and a large amount of lift is generated as the aircraft reaches rotate velocity and transition to climbout.

Winglets and wing fences also increase efficiency by reducing vortex interference with laminar airflow near the tips of the wing,^[10] by 'moving' the confluence of low-pressure (over wing) and high-pressure (under wing) air away from the surface of the wing. Wingtip vortices create turbulence, originating at the leading edge of the wingtip and propagating backwards and inboard. This turbulence 'delaminates' the airflow over a small triangular section of the outboard wing, which destroys lift in that area. The fence/winglet drives the area where the vortex forms upwards away from the wing surface, since the center of the resulting vortex is now at the tip of the winglet.

Aircraft such as the Airbus A340 and the Boeing 747-400 use winglets. Other designs such as some versions of the Boeing 777 and the Boeing 747-8 omit them in favor of raked wingtips. Large winglets such as those seen on Boeing 737 aircraft equipped with blended winglets are most useful during short-distance flights, where increased climb performance offsets increased drag. Raked wingtips are now preferred^{[citation needed]} over small winglets for long-distance flights, where increased fuel economy during the cruise phase is more important.

The Rutan VariEze, the first aircraft to use winglets in 1975

NASA development[link]

Richard T. Whitcomb, an engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center, further developed Hoerner's concept in response to the sharp increase in the cost of fuel after the 1973 oil crisis. With careful aeronautical design, he showed that correctly angled and shaped winglets could maintain the same or lower bending moment with a smaller wingspan and greater flight stability than tip extensions. Whitcomb's designs were flight-tested in 1979–80 by a joint NASA/Air Force team, using a KC-135 Stratotanker based at the Dryden Flight Research Center.^[3] A Lockheed L-1011 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 were also used for testing, and the latter design was directly implemented by McDonnell Douglas on the derivative MD-11, which was rolled out in 1990.^[3] NASA's own most notable application of wingtip devices is on the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Located on the 747's horizontal stabilizers, the devices increase the tailplane's effectiveness under the weight of the Space Shuttle orbiter.^[9]

Applications[link]

Beechcraft Starship Model 2000

Composite aircraft[link]

Even before NASA did flight testing on winglets, Burt Rutan incorporated them in his innovative Rutan VariEze homebuilt aircraft design, which made its first flight with winglets on May 21, 1975. The VariEze pioneered glass-reinforced plastic composite construction in homebuilt aircraft, which simplified fabrication of the winglets. He reduced the resulting drag penalty by assigning double duty to the winglets; they also serve as vertical stabilizers and rudders in his canard, pusher configuration aircraft. They were also used similarly on the derivative Rutan Long-EZ and reappeared on his Beechcraft Starship business aircraft design that first flew in 1986.^[11] Conventional winglets were fitted to Rutan's Rutan Voyager, the first aircraft to circumnavigate the world without refueling in 1986. However, the aircraft's wingtips were damaged when they dragged along the runway during takeoff, breaking off about a foot of each wingtip, so the flight was made without benefit of winglets.^[12]

Gulfstream V with winglets

Business aircraft[link]

Learjet exhibited the prototype Learjet 28 at the 1977 National Business Aviation Association convention. The Model 28 prototype employed the first winglets ever used on a jet and a production aircraft, either civilian or military. Learjet developed the winglet design without NASA assistance. Although the Model 28 was intended to be a prototype experimental aircraft, performance was so impressive that it resulted in a production commitment from Learjet. Flight tests, made with and without winglets, showed that the winglets increased range by about 6.5 percent and also improved directional stability. Learjet's application of winglets to production aircraft continued with newer models including the Learjet 55, 31, 60, 45 and Learjet 40.

Learjet 60 with winglets

Gulfstream Aerospace also explored winglets in the late 1970s and incorporated winglets in the Gulfstream III, IV and V. The performance of the Gulfstream V has been exemplary. Its operational range of 6,500 nmi (12,038 km) permits routine nonstop business travel for routes such as New York–Tokyo. The Gulfstream V also holds over 70 world and national flight records.^[13]

Winglets are also applied to several other business jets to reduce take-off distance, enabling operation out of smaller secondary airports, and allowing higher cruise altitudes for overflying bad weather, both of which are valuable operational benefits for corporate travel. In addition to factory-installed winglets on new aircraft, aftermarket vendors developed retrofit kits, for popular jets and turboprops, to improve both aerodynamics and appearance. Winglets became so popular on this class of aircraft that the Dassault Group, whose French designers resisted applying them on their Dassault Falcon line until recently, were forced to run a contrarian marketing campaign. Cessna recently announced they were partnering with Winglet Technology, LLC of Wichita, Kansas, to test a new wingtip device called Elliptical Winglets, which are designed to increase range and increase payload on hot and high departures.^[14]

A Boeing 747-400 with winglets

Passenger aircraft[link]

Boeing announced a new version of the 747 in October 1985, known as the 747-400, with an extended range and capacity. With that particular model, Boeing used a combination of winglets and increased span to carry the additional load. The winglets increased the 747-400's range by 3.5 percent over the 747-300, which is otherwise aerodynamically identical but has no winglets.^[15] Winglets are preferred for Boeing derivative designs based on existing platforms, because they allow maximum re-use of existing components. Newer designs are favoring increased span, other wingtip devices or a combination of both, whenever possible.

In 2002, Boeing first flew a production Next-Generation 737 with its new Blended Winglets, six-foot extensions that decrease fuel consumption by about 4 to 6 percent. The airplane gained supplemental type certification in 2003, and the majority of 737s delivered today are equipped with the devices.^{[citation needed]}

Blended winglets[link]

Boeing 737 with blended winglets

A blended winglet is attached to the wing with smooth curve instead of a sharp angle and is intended to reduce interference drag at the wing/winglet junction. A sharp interior angle in this region can interact with the boundary layer flow causing a drag inducing vortex, negating some of the benefit of the winglet. The blended winglet is used on business jets and sailplanes, where individual buyer preference is an important marketing aspect.

Blended winglets have been offered as an aftermarket retrofit for the Gulfstream II, Hawker 800, and the Falcon 2000 with winglets designed by Aviation Partners Inc., a Seattle, Washington-based firm that develops and markets blended winglets. A joint partnership of Aviation Partners, Inc. and Boeing, Aviation Partners Boeing offers blended winglets for the Boeing 737 Classic and Next Generation models,^[1] 757 and 767.^[16] The 737 version is now standard on the Boeing Business Jet derivative. Many operators have retrofitted their fleets with these for the fuel cost savings.

Airbus tested two candidate blended winglets, designed by Winglet Technology and Airbus themselves, for the Airbus A320 family,^[17] but determined that their benefits did not warrant further development. In December 2008, Airbus announced that, in conjunction with Aviation Partners, Inc., they are restarting their winglet testing program for the A320, stating they are putting into practice the lessons learned from tests two years before. The stated aim of the new tests is to consider "an integrated Airbus programme"^{[citation needed]}.

In 2009 Airbus launched a new blended winglet design which the company called a "sharklet", designed to enhance the payload-range performance of the A320 Family. Offered as a retrofit option, sharklets are expected to result in a reduced fuel burn of at least 3.5 percent over longer sectors, corresponding to an annual CO₂ reduction of around 700 tonnes per aircraft. The A320 will be the first model fitted with sharklets, which will be delivered in 2012.^[18][19]

Wingtip fence[link]

A detailed view of the wingtip fence on an Airbus A319

A wingtip fence refers to the winglets used in some Airbus airplane models which include surfaces extending both above and below the wingtip as described in Whitcomb's early research.^[9] Both surfaces are shorter than or equivalent to a winglet possessing similar aerodynamic benefits. Wingtip fences are the preferred wingtip device of Airbus, employed on all their airliners except for the A330 and A340 families. The A350 however, will make use of winglets rather than wingtip fences.

Advertising[link]

Advertising on WestJet Boeing 737-700 winglets

Some airlines capitalize on the visibility of winglets to passengers. AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, WestJet and Ryanair advertise their websites on the inboard side of their 737's winglets.

Schempp-Hirth Ventus-2 glider with factory winglets winch-launching

Gliders[link]

In 1987, mechanical engineer Peter Masak called on aerodynamicist Mark D. Maughmer, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, about designing winglets to improve performance on his 15-meter wingspan racing sailplane. Others had attempted to apply Whitcomb's winglets to gliders before, and they did improve climb performance, but this did not offset the parasitic drag penalty in high-speed cruise. Masak was convinced it was possible to overcome this hurdle.^[20] By trial and error, they ultimately developed successful winglet designs for gliding competitions, using a new PSU–90–125 airfoil, designed by Maughmer specifically for the winglet application. At the 1991 World Gliding Championships in Uvalde, Texas, the trophy for the highest speed went to a winglet-equipped 15-meter class limited wingspan glider, exceeding the highest speed in the unlimited span Open Class, an exceptional result.^[21] Masak went on to win the 1993 U.S. 15 Meter Nationals gliding competition, using winglets on his prototype Masak Scimitar.^[22]

PSU-90-125 winglet airfoil profile

The Masak winglets were originally retrofitted to production sailplanes, but within 10 years of their introduction, most high-performance gliders were equipped from the factory with winglets or other wingtip devices.^[23] It took over a decade for winglets to first appear on a production airliner, the original application that was the focus of the NASA development. Yet, once the advantages of winglets were proven in competition, adoption was swift with gliders. The point difference between the winner and the runner-up in soaring competition is often less than one percent, so even a small improvement in efficiency is a significant competitive advantage. Many non-competition pilots installed them for handling benefits such as increased roll rate and roll authority and reduced tendency for wing tip stall. The benefits are notable, because sailplane winglets must be removable to allow the glider to be stored in a trailer, so they are usually installed only at the pilot's preference.

Notable examples[link]

Winglets are employed on many aircraft types, such as:

• Rutan VariEze, the first aircraft to use winglets (1975)
• Learjet 28/29, the first production jet aircraft to use winglets (1977)
• Glaser-Dirks DG-303, an early glider derivative design, incorporating winglets as factory standard equipment
• Airbus A310-300, the first airliner to feature wingtip fences (1985)^[24]
• Boeing 747-400, the first mainline airliner to feature winglets (1988)
• Ilyushin Il-96, first Russian and modern jet to feature winglets (1988)
• Bombardier CRJ-100\200, first regional airliner to feature winglets (1992)^[25]
• Tupolev Tu-204, first narrow body aircraft to feature winglets (1994)

Raked wingtip[link]

Boeing 787 Dreamliner rollout showing raked wingtip

Raked wingtips are a feature on some Boeing airliners, where the tip of the wing has a higher degree of sweep than the rest of the wing. The stated purpose of this additional feature is to improve fuel efficiency and climb performance, and to shorten takeoff field length. It does this in much the same way that winglets do, by increasing the effective aspect ratio of the wing and interrupting harmful wingtip vortices. This decreases the amount of lift-induced drag experienced by the aircraft. In testing by Boeing and NASA, raked wingtips have been shown to reduce drag by as much as 5.5%, as opposed to improvements of 3.5% to 4.5% from conventional winglets.^[15]

While an equivalent increase in wingspan would be more effective than a winglet of the same length, the bending force becomes a greater factor. A three-foot winglet has the same bending force as a one-foot increase in span, yet gives the same performance gain as a two-foot wing span increase.^[26]

For this reason, the short-range Boeing 787-3 design called for winglets instead of the raked wingtips featured on all other 787 variants.

Raked wingtips are installed on, or are planned to be installed on:

• Boeing P-8 Poseidon
• Boeing 747-8 Freighter
• Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental
• Boeing 767-400ER
• Boeing 777-200LR
• Boeing 777-300ER
• Boeing 777 Freighter
• Boeing 787-8
• Boeing 787-9

Non-planar wingtip[link]

DG Flugzeugbau DG-1000 glider with raked, non-planar wingtip and winglet

Non-planar wingtips are normally angled upwards in a polyhedral wing configuration, increasing the local dihedral near the wing tip. These provide the wake control benefit of winglets, with less parasitic drag penalty, if designed carefully. The non-planar wing tip is often swept back like a raked wingtip and may also be combined with a winglet. A winglet is also a special case of a non-planar wingtip.

Aircraft designers employed mostly planar wing designs with simple dihedral after World War II, prior to the introduction of winglets. With the wide acceptance of winglets in new sailplane designs of the 1990s, designers sought to further optimize the aerodynamic performance of their wingtip designs. Glider winglets were originally retrofitted directly to planar wings, with only a small, nearly right-angle, transition area. Once the performance of the winglet itself was optimized, attention was turned to the transition between the wing and winglet. A common application was tapering the transition area from the wing tip chord to the winglet chord and raking the transition area back, to place the winglet in the optimal position. If the tapered portion was canted upward, the winglet height could also be reduced. Eventually, designers employed multiple non-planar sections, each canting up at a greater angle, dispensing with the winglets entirely.

Closed surfaces at the end of winglets are a possible way to substantially decrease the wake vortices induced at the tips of a wing. An example of a closed-surface winglet is the Spiroid winglet, a design currently under development by Aviation Partners. Initial testing using a Gulfstream II test aircraft has shown the winglet design to reduce fuel consumption in the cruise phase by over 10%.^[27] These Spiroid winglets have also been flight tested on a Falcon 50 aircraft.^[28]

A Falcon 50 with a spiroid winglet

Non-planar wingtips (without winglets) are or will be employed on:

• Schempp-Hirth Discus-2
• Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus
• Airbus A350-800 XWB
• Airbus A350-900 XWB
• Airbus A350-1000 XWB

Hybrid designs[link]

On the Boeing 737 MAX, a new type of wingtip device has been introduced^[29]. Resembling a three-way hybrid between a blended winglet, wingtip fence, and raked wingtip, Boeing claims that this new design should deliver an additional 1.5% improvment in fuel economy over the 10-12% improvement already expected from the 737 MAX.

Actuating wingtip devices[link]

There has been research into actuating wingtip devices, including a filed patent application,^[30] though no aircraft currently uses this feature as described. The XB-70 Valkyrie's wingtips were capable of drooping downward in flight, to facilitate Mach 3 flight using waveriding.

Use on rotating blades[link]

"Winged rotor" on AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin helicopter		C-130J Super Hercules showing scimitar propellers with raked tips		Detail view of the wingtip device on a wind turbine rotor-blade.

Wingtip devices are also used on rotating propeller, helicopter rotor, and wind turbine blades to reduce drag, reduce diameter, reduce noise and/or improve efficiency. By reducing aircraft blade tip vortices interacting with the ground surface during taxiing, takeoff, and hover, these devices can reduce damage from dirt and small stones picked up in the vortices.^[31]

Rotorcraft applications[link]

The main rotor of the AgustaWestland AW101 (formerly the EH101) has a special "winged tip"; pilots have found that this alters the downwash field and reduces brownout which limits visibility in dusty areas and leads to accidents.^[32]

Propeller applications[link]

Hartzell Propeller developed their "Q-tip" propeller used on the Piper PA-42 Cheyenne and several other fixed-wing aircraft types by bending the blade tips back at a 90-degree angle to get the same thrust from a reduced diameter propeller disk; the reduced propeller tip speed reduces noise, according to the manufacturer.^[31] Modern scimitar propellers have increased sweepback at the tips, resembling a raked tip on an aircraft wing.

See also[link]

• Wing tip
• Vertical stabilizer
• Canard (aeronautics)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Winglets

• Boeing 767 Raked Wingtips
• Boeing Press Release for 777-300ER
• About Winglets paper by Mark D. Maughmer
• Winglet Design for Sailplanes paper by Peter Masak
• A close Look at Winglets
• Assessment of Wingtip Modifications to Increase the Fuel Efficiency of Air Force Aircraft, National Academies Press, 2007, p.33

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, England founded the travel agency that in 2007 became Thomas Cook Group.

Early days[link]

Thomas Cook was born to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9 Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire.^[1] The couple's first child, he was named after Elizabeth's father, Thomas Perkins. John Cook died when Thomas was three years old, and his mother remarried later that same year.

At the age of 10, Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener for a wage of six pence a week. At the age of 14, he secured an apprenticeship with John Pegg, and spent five years as a cabinet maker.^[1]

He was brought up as a strict Baptist, and joined his local Temperance Society. In February 1826, Cook became a preacher, and toured the region as a village evangelist, distributing pamphlets, and occasionally working as a cabinet maker to earn money.^[1] After working as a part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, he became a Baptist minister in 1828.

In 1832, Cook moved to Adam and Eve Street in Market Harborough. Influenced by the local Baptist minister Francis Beardsall, he took the temperance pledge on New Year's Day in 1833. As a part of the temperance movement, he organized meetings and held anti-liquor processions.^[1]

On 3 March 1833, Cook married Marianne Mason. John Mason Cook, their only son, was born on 13 January 1834 .^[1]

The first-ever excursions[link]

Panels from the Thomas Cook Building in Leicester, displaying excursions offered by Thomas Cook

Cook's idea to offer excursions came to him while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth. With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of 540 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street station to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that included rail tickets and food for this train journey. Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price. This was the first privately chartered excursion train to be advertised to the general public; Cook himself acknowledging that there had been previous, unadvertised, private excursion trains.^[2] During the following three summers he planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children. In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. This success led him to start his own business running rail excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets.

Leicester railway station - this was built between 1892 and 1894 to replace, largely on the same site, Campbell Street station, the origin for many of Cook's early tours.

On 4 August 1845 he arranged accommodation for a party to travel from Leicester to Liverpool. In 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland, however his lack of commercial ability led him to bankruptcy. He persisted and found success when he claimed that he arranged for over 165,000 people to attend the Great Exhibition in London. Four years later, he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took a group from Leicester to Calais to coincide with the Paris Exhibition. The following year he started his 'grand circular tours' of Europe. During the 1860s he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and United States. Cook established 'inclusive independent travel', whereby the traveller went independently but his agency charged for travel, food and accommodation for a fixed period over any chosen route. Such was his success that the Scottish railway companies withdrew their support between 1862 and 1863 to try the excursion business for themselves.

With John A Mason Cook, he formed a partnership and renamed the travel agency as Thomas Cook and Son. They acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London. By this time, Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel. The office also contained a shop which sold essential travel accessories including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear. Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand. In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office. Their business model was refined by the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1866. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the traveller. These were valid for either a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook's list.

In 1865, the agency organised tours of the United States, picking up passengers from several departure points. John Mason Cook led the excursion which included tours of several Civil War battlefields. A brief but bitter partnership was formed with an American businessman in 1871 called Cook, Son and Jenkins; however after an acrimonious split the agency reverted back to its original name. A round the world tour started in 1872, which for 200 guineas, included a steamship across the Atlantic, a stage coach across America, a paddle steamer to Japan, and an overland journey across China and India, lasting 222 days.

In 1874, Thomas Cook introduced 'circular notes', a product that later became better known by American Express's brand, 'traveller's cheques'.^[3]

Conflicts of interest between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his death. The firm's growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880s when Cook began organising tours to the Middle East. By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets.^[4] John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as "the second-greatest man in Egypt".^[4] However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the following year.

Statue of Thomas Cook near Leicester railway station.

Non-family ownership[link]

John Mason Cook's sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward, were not nearly as successful as their father and grandfather at running the business. Despite opening a new headquarters in Berkeley Square, London in 1926, ownership of Thomas Cook and Son only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. During the 1930s the travel agency changed its focus from tours to Egypt and Palestine. Indeed the company was a principal employer in Egypt, involved in shipping, transport and touring operations. After the outbreak of World War II the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and the British assets requisitioned by the British government. In 1941, the centenary of the company, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies with the aim of expanding it further.

The company was nationalised in 1948 as part of the British Transport Commission. In the early 1950s the company began promoting 'foreign holidays' (particularly Italy, Spain and Switzerland) by showing information films at town halls throughout Britain. However they did not sell cheap package holidays, which included transport and accommodation, a decision costly to the company. The company went further into decline, and was rescued by a consortium of Trust House Forte, Midland Bank and the Automobile Association that bought the company from the British Government on 26 May 1972.^[5] Midland Bank acquired sole control in 1977. U.S. banking laws prohibited any national banks from owning travel agencies, so the U.S. operations were sold to Dun & Bradstreet in 1975.

After restructuring the company and re-entering the traveller's cheque business the company prospered again. During the 1980s Thomas Cook had its most visible business presence in the U.S., including robust travellers cheque sales to regional U.S. banks. The company had enough business critical mass to set up a computer centre near Princeton, New Jersey. Robert Gaffney and Samuel Malek were two of the notable decision-makers in that era. Robert Maxwell bought substantial holdings in the company in 1988. He was expected to sell his holdings quickly as he was a publisher rather than a travel agent. However, when Crimson/Heritage purchased the U.S. division of Thomas Cook for US$1.3 billion in 1989,^[6] he still maintained a substantial interest in the company until his death.

In June 1992, following the acquisition of Midland Bank by HSBC, Thomas Cook was sold to the German bank Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB) and the charter airline LTU Group for £200 million.

In September 1994 American Express (Amex) bought the corporate travel interests of Thomas Cook Travel Inc. which represented about ten percent of the British company's total revenue. However Amex was not able to buy the venerable Thomas Cook name; an American Express affiliate, Cook Travel Inc. had been operating under that name since 1991 in the United States.

Due to contractual difficulties LTU Group sold its 10% shares to WestLB in May 1995. During 1996 the company bought short-haul operator Sunworld and European city-breaks tour group Time Off. Within three years the company had combined Sunworld, Sunset, Inspirations, Flying Colours and Caledonian Airways into the JMC (for John Mason Cook) brand.

Thomas Cook logo, 1999

A modern Thomas Cook travel agency in Leeds.

On 2 February 1999 the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into a holding company owned by West LB, Carlson Inc and Preussag Aktiengesellschaft ("Preussag").^[7] However, in mid-2000 Preussag acquired Thomas Cook's rival Thomson Travel and was forced to sell its majority 50.1% stake in Thomas Cook by regulatory authorities.

In March 2001 the Financial Services division was sold to Travelex, who retained the right to use the Thomas Cook brand on Traveller's Cheques for 5 years. In 2002 Thomas Cook was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, which later changed its name to Thomas Cook AG. The group is jointly owned by Lufthansa and Karstadt.

In 2007 Thomas Cook announced a merger with competitor MyTravel, with the new group to be called Thomas Cook Group plc and listed on the London Stock Exchange. The transaction was completed in June 2007 following competition authority clearance. The new group was 51% owned by Arcandor (new name of Karstadt).

Thomas Cook made a controversial business move in 2008, buying out Canadian travel wholesaler IFS Voyages (including Fun Sun Vacations, Intair, Exotik Tours, Boomerang Tours, etc.).

In March 2011 Thomas Cook acquired the UK travel insurance and airport parking provider Essential Travel and launched Thomas Cook Essentials. This was followed by a merger with The Co-operative Travel group on 8 October 2011 to create the UK's largest retail travel network.

At the 2011 AGM Thomas Cook shareholders mounted a "revolt" over executive bonuses, with only 53.2 percent voting in favour of the remuneration report.^[8]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thomas Cook

• Thomas Cook Biography
• Article about Thomas Cook