Discover Airlines has put the first Airbus with a special “shark skin” film into regular passenger service. The film is meant to cut fuel use a little on every flight.
Read on to find out how a thin film can save fuel, and why a one percent saving matters.
Discover Airlines is the leisure airline of the Lufthansa Group. On 19 October it said that its Airbus A330-300, registered D-AIKP, is now flying scheduled service with the new film. This means the aircraft flies to a regular timetable and carries paying passengers. Its first flight after the work was to Florida on 15 October. No other Airbus in the world flies passengers with this film.
What the Film Does
The film is called AeroSHARK. Lufthansa Technik and a company called Surventis developed it. Its surface copies the skin of a shark, which has tiny ridges. These ridges help a shark move through water with less resistance, and air flowing over an aircraft behaves in a similar way. The film saves fuel by reducing drag. Drag is the force of the air that pushes against a moving aircraft. The film is stuck to the fuselage and to the engine nacelles, the covers around the engines.
Less drag means the engines burn less fuel. On the A330 the saving is about one percent. That sounds small, but a long flight burns tens of tonnes of fuel, so one percent is still hundreds of kilograms. An airline also flies the same aircraft many times every week, so the savings add up. The Lufthansa Group says that its aircraft with AeroSHARK already save more than 20 tonnes of jet fuel and about 64 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) every day.
Lufthansa Technik is the maintenance and engineering company of the Lufthansa Group, so the work stayed inside the group. The modification took place at Dresden Airport in late August. Before carrying passengers, the aircraft made a series of test flights.
What Happens Next
AeroSHARK was already flying on Boeing 777 aircraft, including the 777F freighter, the 777-300ER and the 777-200ER. The A330 is the first Airbus to use it in scheduled service. Discover Airlines plans to treat the other A330s in its fleet in the same way. One report says that the film could later cover more surfaces, such as the wings and the tail, to raise the savings.
Airlines are always looking for ways to use less fuel and produce less CO2. A film like this is attractive because an airline can add it to an aircraft it already owns, instead of waiting for a new one. For passengers, nothing changes inside the cabin. The difference is on the outside, where the thin surface quietly helps the aircraft fly more efficiently.
Check your understanding
How does the AeroSHARK film help an aircraft save fuel?
The article says the film saves fuel by reducing drag, and that less drag means the engines burn less fuel.
True or false: The Airbus A330 is the first aircraft in the world to use AeroSHARK.
AeroSHARK was already flying on Boeing 777 aircraft. The A330 is the first Airbus to use it in scheduled service.
Why does the article say that a one percent saving still matters?
The article says the saving sounds small, but an airline flies the same aircraft many times every week, so the savings add up.
- drag (noun) – the force of the air that pushes against a moving aircraft and slows it down. Typical use: “The film saves fuel by reducing drag.”
- nacelle (noun) – the cover around an aircraft engine. Typical use: “The film is stuck to the fuselage and to the engine nacelles.”
- scheduled service (noun phrase) – regular flights on a timetable that carry paying passengers. Typical use: “The A330 is the first Airbus to use it in scheduled service.”
- modification (noun) – a change made to an aircraft after it has been built. Typical use: “The modification took place at Dresden Airport in late August.”
You can read about another way to make aircraft more efficient in Airbus Begins Flight Tests for Its ‘Wing of Tomorrow’.
