By Jeffrey Decker
Aviation Partners is continuing to prove its point on economy and environment, not with the tip of an iceberg – but with the tip of a wing.
The Seattle based manufacturer created the concept of winglets and is in Paris to explain the technology to more doubters.
“As far as independent verification, we probably have 88 different airlines that independently verify our statistics every day,” says chairman, CEO and founder Joe Clark.
“The airlines buy winglets because they want to save on fuel. They pay for themselves, otherwise they wouldn’t buy them. The private guys in the business aircraft market buy them because they have more range and can fly higher.”
Another selling point is how less fuel burnt means fewer emissions, an ecologically-friendly notion that’s practical. “Of course, the continual rise in fuel prices has certainly helped (sales),” admits Clark. There’s a difference on the ground, too: “The sound footprint of the entire airplane is about seven percent smaller.”
Those advantages were first applied to the Gulfstream II and then the Boeing Business Jet, and Clark says it’s been a steady growth since then. He’s also Chairman, but not CEO of Aviation Partners Boeing, a joint venture with the airframe that supplies airlines with winglets and has cemented the reputation of the product.
Last month Aviation Partners announced retrofits to four Hawker Beechcraft 800 series aircraft owned by Coca Cola in Atlanta. “We give the Hawker about 30 minutes and another couple hundred miles of range,” says Clark. That’s a big deal for these guys. It lets them fly a couple thousand feet higher.”
The senior VP of technology who designed the first blended winglet and leads design of its successors is Dr. Louis B. Gratzer. Thirty years of experience at Boeing, including as chief of aerodynamics, gave the foundation for innovation.
Accurate
“When he worked in the wind tunnels, he didn’t believe that wind tunnels accurately predicted how wingtip devices worked,” recalls Clark.
So their initial tests that proved the design work were conducted with a Gulfstream in the air, and so has every test since. “We never use wind tunnels. Never have. They’re good for loads and some aerodynamics, but not winglets and I think we’ve proven that pretty decisively,” Clark said.
They’ve also proven the performance of what was once questionable, and Clark says there are few doubters.
“They’re now in the minority. When I first went to pitch winglets to people, there would be ten people in the room, one would say they worked and nine would say they wouldn’t. And I would be the one. Now it’s the other way. Nine would say they work and one would say they don’t.”
Some may find their patented technology too appealing, he states. “Any time you get something successful there are always people out there who try to save a buck and design around you. We call those ‘pretendlets.’
“There’s a few that have done it and we’re looking at them all the time. I can tell you this: we guard our technology very jealously and if we see anybody we think has gotten close enough we’ll go after them.” ?
Source: Flight Daily News
