Shark-Skin Film Pained On Jets Cuts Fuel Consumption

Zero-emissions airliners are still a long way off, but Lufthansa and BASF have developed a way to improve things right now. AeroShark is an adhesive riblet film that immediately reduces fuel consumption, and therefore emissions, from any aircraft, Loz Blain reported for New Atlas.

Photo Insert: The AeroShark film is easy to apply, and extremely durable against the weather and UV exposure with which it will deal.

Millions of years of evolution moved the ocean's most feared predators away from perfectly smooth skin. Instead, sharks have very slightly ribbed skin, which reduces drag enough to become an advantage.

What works in hydrodynamics often translates well to aerodynamics, so the AeroShark team moved to emulate the texture on the exterior of large aircraft.

The resulting film doesn't sound like a radical difference; the millions of prism-shaped "riblets" on the AeroShark film's surface are no more than 50 micrometers (1/20th of a millimeter, 2/1000ths of an inch) high.

But that's enough to make a difference in fuel consumption; international airline Swissair has calculated that if 950 square meters (10,225 sq ft) of this film is applied to a Boeing 777, in specific patterns and aligned with the airflow around the fuselage and engine nascelle surfaces, the reduced drag immediately reduces fuel consumption by 1.1 percent.

The AeroShark film is easy to apply, and extremely durable against the weather and UV exposure it's going to need to deal with. Thus, Swiss is sticking AeroShark on all 12 of its 777s, in a move it says will save a staggering 4,800 tons of jet fuel a year, reducing CO2 emissions by some 15,200 tons in the process.

Lufthansa had previously announced it will roll it out on its entire cargo freight fleet as well – a further 10 Boeing 777s, representing 3,700 tons of jet fuel savings and 11,700 tons of CO2 emissions avoided every year. The AeroShark team says it's likely to be slightly more effective on cargo planes that don't have window rows to work around.

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