Lufthansa Technik announces that EVA Air is the first Asian airline to sign a contract to modify its aircraft with the drag-reducing and thus fuel-saving AeroSHARK surface technology, developed jointly with BASF.
The Taipei-based airline has decided to modify its entire cargo fleet of nine long-haul Boeing 777F freighters with the innovative Riblet films that cover the fuselage and engine nacelles of the aircraft. B-16786 is the first EVA Air cargo aircraft to undergo this extensive modification at the airline’s home base at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport. Under close supervision from Lufthansa Technik, the modification was carried out by EVA Air’s subsidiary Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation (EGAT). The aircraft is scheduled to return to commercial service in early September.
AeroSHARK is a functional surface film that is based on the drag-reducing structure of shark skin. It consists of ribs measuring around 50 micrometers in size – the so-called riblets. If several hundred square meters of the fuselage and engine nacelles are covered with it, the aircraft’s frictional resistance is reduced so much that fuel consumption and the resulting emissions are reduced by around one percent. Extrapolated to EVA Air’s nine 777F aircraft, this corresponds to an annual saving of more than 2,500 tons of kerosene and more than 7,800 tons of CO2 emissions.
Lufthansa Technik currently holds Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) for the AeroSHARK modification of two Boeing 777 types, which is currently in full swing at various airlines around the world. In addition to EVA Air’s first freighter equipped with sharkskin, a double-digit number of aircraft are already in service with AeroSHARK worldwide, and this number is constantly growing. EVA Air’s entire 777 fleet is to be equipped by 2027.
