SWISS will become the first passenger airline in the world to deploy the new AeroSHARK aircraft skin technology to further reduce fuel consumption and emissions. All 12 of the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ERs will successively receive the Lufthansa Technik/BASF film.
On Wednesday (February 23, 2022), Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) announced that they will become the first passenger airline to deploy the innovative new AeroSHARK riblet film, which will be successively added to the carrier’s fleet of 12 Boeing 777-300ERs. The new riblet film, which has been co-developed by Lufthansa Technik and BASF, will be applied to the fuselage and engine nacelles, resulting in a reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
In Wednesday’s announcment, SWISS’ CEO, Dieter Vranckx, said,
“Reducing its environmental footprint is one of the greatest challenges ahead for the aviation sector, and being carbon-neutral in our flying by 2050 is a key SWISS strategic objective. We put a major emphasis at SWISS on actively promoting and making targeted investments in new technologies. And we’re delighted that, in becoming the world’s first passenger airline to use the innovative AeroSHARK technology, as we’ll be doing with our Boeing 777 fleet, we’ll now be making a further substantial contribution to ensuring more sustainable travel.”
With millions of ‘riblets’ or small protrusions only 50 micrometers high, which replicate the highly hydrodynamic skin of sharks, the film helps reduce aerodynamic drag and will make SWISS’ fleet of 777-300ERs 1.1 percent more fuel efficient. In total, this will reduce annual fuel consumption by 4,800 tonnes and the emissions of the carrier’s 777 fleet by up to 15,200 tonnes of CO2 annually, the equivalent of around 87 long-haul flights from Zurich to Mumbai.
The new AeroSHARK film will be successively installed on the SWISS 777 fleet from mid-2022 onwards, with work being performed during scheduled aircraft downtimes. SWISS also participated in the development of AeroSHARK’s technology. During summer 2021, the carrier measured the aerodynamic performance of a Boeing 777 wing, which was precisely monitored throughout a scheduled flight from Zurich to San Francisco. The data enabled Lufthansa Technik to devise high precision 3D airflow simulation models, which will be used to develop AeroSHARK riblet film for additional application to the 777s wings.
Source: SWISS
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