Aviation Partners at NBAA has unveiled a split-scimitar winglet retrofit for the Boeing Business Jet that is custom painted to honor members of the US military.
“People often tell me our winglets are works of art,” says Joe Clark, Aviation Partners founder and chief executive. “So what better way to showcase this art than by applying a one-of-a-kind livery to honor America’s servicemen and women, veterans and fallen heroes.”
The scimitar winglet, launched in 2013, is a retrofit to the BBJ's existing blended winglet that adds a new ventral strake and reinforces the winglet’s internal structure and replacement of the aluminum winglet tip caps with new more aerodynamic scimitar-shaped ends.
“The split scimitar winglet range benefit is tremendously compelling given the missions many BBJ owners undertake,” says Gary Dunn, the firm's vice-president of marketing. “And based on our ongoing study of laminar flow we believe further improvements in drag reduction will be available in the future.”
Flight testing on the design began in 2012 and has shown it can reduce drag over the existing blended winglet configuration without extending wingspan, the company says. The scimitar shape can achieve drag reduction, and therefore an increase in range of 2.5-3%, or around 200nm (370km).
Get all the latest coverage from NBAA 2014 here
Source: Flight Daily News
