American Airlines on March 8 marked the first revenue passenger flight of a Boeing 767-300ER with Aviation Partners Boeing’s (APB) Blended Winglets.

Bob Reding, American's executive vice president – operations, said "the fuel savings and emissions reductions that we will achieve are one more step in our efforts to both moderate costs and shrink the impact we have on our environment - two goals that go hand-in-hand."

The increased lift provided by the winglets, without a corresponding increase of engine power, improves fuel efficiency. By reducing the drag created by traditional wingtip vortices, APB estimates that the Blended Winglets/767-300ER combo will save up to 6.5 percent on fuel consumption. That translates to a savings of about 500,000 gallons of fuel annually depending on miles flown.

American plans to install winglets on its entire 58 aircraft fleet of 767-300ERs, which could result in a total savings of up to 29 million gallons of fuel per year. Today, over 2,800 Boeing aircraft have been equipped with Blended Winglets. By 2014, APB expects that Blended Winglets will have saved the world's airlines over five billion gallons of jet fuel. In addition to the fuel cost savings, the 767-300ER fuel efficiency improvement will result in a reduction of up to 277,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually, according to APB. The 11-foot high winglets could also extend the range of an aircraft by as much as 360 nautical miles and improve takeoff performance, providing as much as 12,000 pounds of additional payload.

"These winglets represent the largest piece of structure ever retrofitted to a commercial aircraft wing and will dramatically change forever both the appearance and performance of the 767-300ER," said John Reimers, APB president and CEO.

The winglet installation work was accomplished by American's Maintenance & Engineering organization at its maintenance base in Kansas City, MO. American expects to modify all of its 767-300ERs by 2011.American has already completed Blended Winglet installation on its fleets of 124 Boeing 757s and 77 Boeing 737s. American Maintenance Services will also install B-767, B-757 and B-737 Blended Winglets on other Aviation Partners Boeing customers’ aircraft at maintenance sites in Tulsa, OK, Kansas City, MO or Fort Worth, TX.

The two companies jointly began the winglet development program in early 2007. APB began the flight test certification program in February 2008 with a leased American 767-300ER. The Blended Winglets-equipped 767-300ER took to the skies for the first time on July 20, 2008.

APB is a joint venture of Aviation Partners and Boeing. Based in Seattle, APB has now certified its patented Blended Winglet technology for the Boeing Business Jet, 737-900, 737-800, 737-700, 737-500, 737-300, 737-200, 757-200 and 767-300ER. APB is currently in the process of certifying Blended Winglets for the 757-300. APB hopes to launch a 777-200ER Blended Winglets program with certification anticipated by December 2010. The blended winglet is being evaluated by Airbus for potential application on the A320 family. The Blended Winglets are manufactured for APB by GKN Aerospace, based on the Isle of Wight in the UK. The wing modification kit was manufactured by the team of LMI Aerospace, Contour Aerospace, and Honeywell Consumable Solutions.

“The 767-300ER Blended Winglet program launch has been our most successful to date,” says Reimers. “We are currently sold out of 767-300ER Blended Winglet Systems through November 2009.”

Meantime, Continental Airlines' first winglet-equipped B-757-300 was delivered in early February, clearing the way for the start of longer-range operations with the model, including transatlantic routes. Continental was the first major U.S. air carrier to buy into blended winglets. It ordered the modification for both retrofit on 757-200 and for production line fit on 737 Next Generations in April 2004. As well as the 757-300, Continental is continuing with efforts to retrofit other models. It installed winglets on 14 of 737-500 aircraft in late 2008, and now has winglets on over 270 of its mainline aircraft. All of the airline's 737-700s, 800s, 900s and 757-200s have winglets, as do some of the carrier's 737-300 and -500 'Classic' series aircraft.

A month ago, Copa Airlines added a new winglet-equipped Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft to its fleet. Last September. DAE Capital, the aircraft leasing and financial business arm of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), signed an agreement with APB to purchase 50 shipsets of Blended Winglets for new 737-700/800 Next Generation aircraft, due for delivery starting in 2010.

Delta Air Lines plans to install Blended Winglets on 30 Boeing 767-300ER aircraft by early 2010. Delta also holds options to retrofit the remainder of its entire 767-300ER fleet with the fuel saving devices. With 350 nautical miles of added range and a payload improvement of up to 90 passengers on routes of 6,300 nautical miles, the aircraft gains significant flexibility for long-range point-to-point service. Substantial takeoff weight capability improvements add to that flexibility.

Delta is also upgrading its Boeing 737NGs and 757-200s with Blended Winglets. The device will provide Delta’s 757-200s with 200 nautical miles of additional range or the ability to carry up to 49 additional passengers on 4,000-mile routes. Delta 767-300ER aircraft will gain more than 350 nautical miles in range or 5.5 tons of payload.