SWISS has equipped its 12 Boeing 777-300ERs with the new AeroSHARK technology over the past 18 months. The AeroSHARK film, which is applied to the aircraft’s fuselage and engine nacelles, replicates the hydrodynamic properties of a shark’s skin to reduce air resistance in flight, lowering fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
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Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has been steadily providing its Boeing 777-300ER long-haul aircraft fleet with the fuel-saving AeroSHARK technology since the first aircraft so equipped performed the world’s first scheduled AeroSHARK flight in October 2022. All 12 aircraft are now in service with the innovative new technology.
The transparent AeroSHARK film is applied to the aircraft’s fuselage and engine nacelles. With its micrometers-deep ‘riblets’ that are aligned to the direction of airflow, the film replicates the hydrodynamic skin of a shark, reducing air resistance in flight by around one per cent. As a result, even with only part of its Boeing 777 fleet equipped with the new technology, AeroSHARK lowered SWISS’s kerosene consumption last year by over 2,200 tonnes, with concomitant reductions of some 7,100 tonnes in the airline’s carbon dioxide emissions.
The AeroSHARK aircraft skin technology has been jointly developed by Lufthansa Technik and coatings manufacturer BASF. SWISS is also considering extending its AeroSHARK application programme to further aircraft types in its long-haul fleet in the medium-term future.