MARK HANNANT
Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) boss Joe Clark arrived at the show yesterday armed with new evidence of the benefits of blended winglets and claiming that in the future all aircraft will feature this technology.
"Blended winglet technology essentially rebrands an aircraft. The difference in both looks and performance is so dramatic the perception is that you have a new aircraft," he believes. "It is effective on any make or model of aircraft. One day we predict all aircraft will be fitted with this performance-enhancing technology."
To support the case, he and the senior executive team he has brought with him are armed with a world record. Earlier this year Virgin Blue set the record with the longest Boeing 737-700 flight ever on a non-stop Hawaii-New Zealand flight.
The APB blended winglet-enhanced next-generation 737 flew the 5,016 miles (8,070km) in 10h34min at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.77.
"We couldn't have done this flight without range-extending blended winglets," says Capt Steve Kidson, Virgin Blue flight operations technical manager. "The winglets gave us approximately 5% additional range and the important benefit of a higher initial cruise altitude."
Lufthansa is also feeling the benefit of the 5% saving on fuel burn that blended winglets now deliver.
The German flag carrier has launched the world's first scheduled transatlantic business class-only service, selecting a PrivatAir BBJ for the six-times a week service from Düsseldorf to Newark. But Chris Randle, PrivatAir executive vice-president, aircraft operations stresses it is not just fuel savings that the blended winglets offer.
"With blended winglets, we can take off from Düsseldorf with an additional 2,000lb (908kg) of payload and climb to altitude faster. Blended winglets allow us to operate quieter and with reduced engine emissions, both very important considerations here in Europe," says Randle.
APB claims the impact on the aircraft's noise footprint is a reduction of 6.75% and while it acknowledges that even it can't break the rules of physics it claims to ‘bend them rather beautifully'.
Clark believes he is finally getting the message across: "We're reaching critical mass where people really understand the significant performance benefits of blended winglets. In the past, manufacturers have redesigned aircraft and engines to achieve a small percentage gain in performance.
Blended winglet technology, on the other hand, gives you a staggering 5% benefit with very little investment or downtime requirement.
"And the performance boost does not deteriorate over the life of the aircraft," he says.
Source: Flight Daily News
