How sturdy are plane wings?

Gosh, you ever wonder how much those airplane wings can take? I mean, seriously, they look kinda flimsy sometimes, right? But let me tell you, they’re amazingly strong. I was talking to my cousin, a pilot for Southwest, once – he told me some crazy stories about turbulence. Like, really bad stuff, the kind that makes your stomach churn just thinking about it. And even then, he said the wings were fine. No sweat.

They’re made from this super strong stuff, you know? Aluminum, mostly, but also carbon fiber – that stuff is like, ridiculously tough. I remember reading somewhere, maybe it was Popular Mechanics or something, that they design these things to handle way, way more stress than they’ll ever actually experience in a normal flight. I think they said something like they’re built to withstand forces multiple times greater than what they’d see even in a really intense storm. So, yeah, pretty darn sturdy. It makes you feel a little safer, doesn’t it? Knowing that even when things get bumpy up there, those wings aren’t likely to just… snap. Phew. That’s a relief, huh?