Sexy new fuel-saving winglets

From the NZ Herald >

Sexy new fuel-saving winglets for Air NZ jets!

Air New Zealand is to fit 3.4m tall winglets to its Boeing 767 aircraft which it estimates will save $7.5 million worth of fuel a year.

Making the announcement in Seattle this morning, the airline's chief pilot Dave Morgan, said Air New Zealand had been looking at the equipment for the past four years but current fuel prices make the case compelling.The winglets are made of carbon fibre, titanium and aluminium and work by minimising the amount of air that spills to the wing tip and increases drag.

Winglets are now a standard feature of many aircraft rolling off the production line, but Air New Zealand will be one of the first airlines to retrofit them to 767s which fly mainly to Australia, the Pacific Islands and Hawaii."They look very sexy on an airplane and the key part is the reduction of CO2 emissions which is very significant," said Morgan, who is general manager of airline operations.

Air New Zealand hopes to save 1.6 million US gallons of fuel and 16,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually among the five 767 aircraft.