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The link below says the fuel cost per hour for a 747-300 is ~$21,000. http://www.what2fly.com/operating_cost/boeing/747-300.php http://www.what2fly.com/operati
by dm2 12y ago
The link below says the fuel cost per hour for a 747-300 is ~$21,000.
http://www.what2fly.com/operating_cost/boeing/747-300.php http://www.what2fly.com/operating_cost/boeing/747-300.php
The winglets save about 3 - 3.5+% fuel consumption. (from Boeing's website and Wikipedia)
So it only takes roughly 2000 hours of flight time to recover the costs from a used set of winglets ($650k each according to the article).
2000 flight hours is generally less than 2 years worth of flights for a normal 747-300. (Couldn't find a great source, didn't look too hard: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/492074/ http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/re... )
According to this they weight between 375 - 518 pounds and are ~6 feet tall, which is significantly more than they look. http://www.b737.org.uk/winglets.htm http://www.b737.org.uk/winglets.htm
Edit: doubled the hours, thanks bhousel
- bhousel 12y ago$650k per winglet, not per set. So actually more like 2000 hours, but that's still significant fuel savings..
- gambiting 12y agoWhat I don't understand is, why would you order an aircraft without them in the first place,if the saving is so big?
- rtkwe 12y agoA guess, there are a lot of older planes out there in the fleets and the winglets were a later improvement.
- smackfu 12y agoGenerally they would be older airframes where winglets weren't an option at the time of manufacture. Also, if you are running a lot of short flights, fuel costs may not be your primary concern. For example, the 747-400D is a model meant for short domestic routes like between Japanese islands, and doesn't have winglets.