What are those “thingies” on the end of Airplane Wings?

Reader Submission:

Dear ATC MEMEs,

My name is Rhonda, long time reader, first time writer. My question is, what are those little thingies on the end of the wings? Are they important? If they are so important, why don’t all airplanes have them? Thanks.

Dear Rhonda,

First of all, thanks for your time. We know you have plenty of options for entertainment, and we love that you spend your time with us. To understand why those wing “Thingies” exist (that is in fact their technical name BTW), you have to understand the history of Aviation. In the beginning, there was just one big airline. Everything was running smoothly and everyone was happy. Then the big, bad U.S. Government stepped in and said that there was a monopoly, and broke the national airline up into many regional airlines. The pilots were really upset over this attack on capitalism. Many of them being former WWII pilots, they had big balls and didn’t like being told what to do. So they all decided to go out to the end of their wings and take a hammer to bend the tip up like a middle finger. It was their way of “Flipping the Bird” to the government. Nowadays you only see really bad ass pilots do it. Delta has a company policy to not piss off Uncle Sam, so no Delta planes have the wing thingies. Southwest airlines has the last of the true bad asses, so they have them on all their jets and most of their Mooney’s. Hope this answered your question. Cheers. -AX