The decision by Dassault to add winglets to its latest Falcon 2000 derivative has been kept firmly under wraps.
Another manufacturer will soon release its plane with blended winglets designed by Aviation Partners, but which company will add the upward-curved tips won’t be announced until Tuesday, May 22 at EBACE.
“I couldn’t even tell my good friend,” said Aviation Partner CEO, Chairman and Founder Joe Clark. Clark says the decision by Dassault to introduce winglets, announced at the show yesterday, will add great efficiency to the aircraft.
“As far as independent verification, we probably have 88 different airlines that independently verify our statistics every day,” Clark points out. “The airlines buy winglets because they want to save on fuel. They pay for themselves, otherwise they wouldn’t buy them. The private guys 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 2 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 Boeing which supplies airlines with winglets and has cemented the reputation of the product.
Last week Aviation Partners announced retrofits to four Raytheon Hawker 800 series craft owned by Coca Cola headquarters 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.”
When the elementary benefits sell the product, Clark says the biggest challenge for sales staff is, “Meeting my projections that I give them. We have a universe of about 650 Hawkers out there to sell to. We’re doing about 50 a year. I’d like to up that to 75,100. What that requires is more feet on the ground.”
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.
“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 worked 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.”
The designs are available to see and Clark will be at EBACE to answer many questions. He’ll make sales, he says, but, “I think the value in those conventions is diminishing. EBACE was great when it was small. When it gets too big you can’t get anything done. NBAA used to be a great place for customers to go. Now I think it’s primarily a place for vendors to meet. And, by the way, everybody I talk to tells me that. You used to be able to get something done. Now all you do is spend a lot of money blowing your horn.”
Source: Flight Daily News
