Aviation Partners develop winglets for Boeing aircraft

The Boeing Company and Aviation Partners, Inc., of Seattle, Wash., are forming Aviation Partners Boeing, a new joint venture that offers blended winglet technology for in-service Boeing commercial aircraft. Blended winglets are upward-swept tip extensions to aircraft wings. Financial details for the joint venture arrangement have not been made public.

The new joint venture will design, develop, certify, fabricate, market, sell and install winglets on in-service Boeing aircraft, pending technical and economic evaluations of each model. Boeing will provide technical data and marketing support, while Aviation Partners, Inc., will provide existing winglet technology, winglets design and programme management.

The winglets technology has the potential to reduce aerodynamic drag, increase cruise performance, improve fuel burn, extend range and allow heavier payloads for winglet-equipped aircraft. Additionally, winglets could open airport routes previously unavailable to operators because of high altitudes or hot climate conditions. Winglet performance improvements depend on a number of factors, including the aircraft model and configuration as well as the operator's routes and payload.

Aviation Partners, Inc has installed blended winglets on Gulfstream II business jets. The company worked on a development programme with Boeing to install winglets on the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ). In BBJ tests conducted over the past year, blended winglets have generated fuel savings and have improved low-speed operating characteristics, initial cruise altitude and cruise performance. Early test results have shown a drag improvement for this model in the range of five to seven percent.

Blended winglets are made of composite materials and aluminium and vary in size, based on the size of the wing to which they are applied. For example, a BBJ winglet is expected to be about eight feet high (2.4 m) and add approximately five feet (1.52 m) to the aircraft's wingspan. Aviation Partners Boeing expects it will take between five and 10 days to install a set of winglets. Airline customers who participate in the retrofit programme most likely will have the installation performed during a routine, major maintenance check when the aircraft is already scheduled to be out of service.

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