Swiss Airlines will cover all of its 12 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with AeroSHARK film, which reproduces shark placoid scales.
It should reduce aerodynamic drag, and thus reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
If airplanes consume less fuel in flight, this will reduce the cost of air travel and reduce environmental pollution.
Technologies that help to do this are being developed by a number of companies today.
For example, Lockheed Martin creates a coating for transport aircraft airframes with golf ball dimples. It should reduce aerodynamic drag.
Swiss Airlines announced on Feb. 23 that it will cover its 12 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with AeroSHARK film, which reproduces placoid shark scales.
It consists of millions of spikes in the form of a prism 50 micrometers high.
The film is resistant to ultraviolet radiation, water, fuel and strong changes in temperature and pressure.
The developers have already tested it on the underside of the Boeing 747-400 fuselage. Resistance decreased by 0.8%.
On an annualized basis, this equates to saving 300 metric tons of kerosene and reducing more than 900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Each Boeing 777 will take 950 square meters of AeroSHARK film. Swiss estimates that the resulting fuel savings will be approximately 1.1%.
Annual fuel consumption will be reduced by more than 4.8 thousand tons, and the total carbon dioxide emissions from all 12 Boeing 777s will decrease by approximately 15.2 thousand tons.
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