Aviation Partners says it has received interest from several Middle East operators following the launch of its Dassault Falcon 900 blended winglet programme at the NBAA convention in Atlanta in October.
"The increased range afforded the 900 series by blended winglets will be very attractive for aircraft in the Middle East and we have already seen interest from several operators in the region," says API vice-president of sales Gary Dunn.
Formal commitments have been received for 10 shipsets. The company expects Falcon 900 winglet certification in March 2011. The pre-supplemental type certificate kit price is $575,000.
The blended winglets for the Falcon 900 are similar to those certificated for the Falcon 2000 series, both as an API STC for in-service aircraft and available for factory installation by Dassault on the Falcon 2000LX/900LX.
API also aims to certificate winglets for the Falcon 50 series in the third quarter of 2011.
The winglets for the three major Falcon families are "high mach" blended winglets, optimised for cruise speeds of Mach 0.8 and higher. On Falcon 2000 series aircraft the winglets provide a drag reduction of 5% at M0.80, and over 7% at long-range cruise, with the same incremental improvement expected on 900 and 50 series aircraft, says API.
Source: Flight Daily News
