Airbus unveiled a much-anticipated advance to its A320 family yesterday when it launched a program to develop new wingtip devices called “Sharklets.” To cost an extra $900,000 installed, the new devices will improve fuel burn on the A320 family by 3.5 percent on “longer” sectors, corresponding to an annual CO2 reduction of some 730 metric tons per aircraft. Airbus COO for customers John Leahy told an afternoon press gathering that the first Sharklets will appear on launch operator Air New Zealand A320s by the end of 2012, followed by the first application on A321s some six months later, then on A319s and, eventually, A318s.
Dr. Kiran Rao, Airbus executive vice president of sales and marketing customer affairs, explained to AIN that although the Sharklets needed strengthening of the airplanes’ wing boxes and will add some 440 pounds, computer modeling will allow Airbus to shed a corresponding amount of weight from both the wing structure and airframe, resulting in no weight penalty.
