Boeing, NASA and others are researching how to improve airplane fuel efficiency by cutting down on the amount of smashed bugs stuck to wings.
Research has shown that having smooth — or laminar — air flow over an airplane’s surfaces can cut its fuel consumption by as much as 6 percent, according to a Boeing news release.
Even something as small as insect guts can interrupt that laminar flow and create drag.
On Monday, a Boeing research plane left the Seattle-area bound for Shreveport, Louisiana. The flight is part of a two-week test program to test different paint-coatings aiming to cut drag and reduce fuel consumption.
The airplane is the company’s ecoDemonstrator 757-200.
Monday’s flight had the callsign BOE016. You can track the test flights here.
Boeing is working primarily with NASA on the research. Other partners include the U.S. Department of Transportation, University of California-Davis and TUI Group, Europe’s leading travel group.
Shreveport was chosen, in part, because it is very buggy, according to the news release.
(I can personally confirm that, having flown in and out of Shreveport plenty of times to visit family in Northwest Louisiana.)
Last year, Boeing tested more than 25 technologies on its ecoDemonstrator 787. In 2012, it used an American Airlines 737-800 as an ecoDemonstrator plane to test 15 technologies.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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