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Reminds me of tell-tales on sailboats which are similar bits of string attached to sails which give feedback about how you might need to adjust your sails to keep the wind moving over them smoothly.

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The purpose is slightly different though: on sails their goal is to detect turbulence and stalls.

Airplanes can also have these fitted on the wings. Although not as common as yaw strings and usually for demonstration purposes.

These are tufts that you mean?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuft_(aeronautics)

Tell-tales are more like stall indicators than yaw strings.

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