Lufthansa jets are to save fuel in the future with the help of a new type of surface film. The surface jointly developed by BASF and Lufthansa Technik was modeled on the ribbed skin of sharks, both companies reported on Monday. 

With the better aerodynamics, the air friction can be reduced by around one percent, so that annual savings of 3700 tons of kerosene are possible when used on the entire Lufthansa freighter fleet. This would avoid the emission of around 11 tons of climate-damaging carbon dioxide (CO700), which corresponds to around 2 cargo flights from Frankfurt to Shanghai.

Starting next year, all Lufthansa Cargo freighters, ten Boeing 777 jets, are to be covered with the new film. It is about the lower half of the hull up to the side surfaces, where there are no disruptive rows of windows on freighters. A spokesman for Lufthansa Technik reported that parts of the wing would also be covered. 

In total, it is about 800 square meters of shark skin per aircraft. So far, the film has been tested on around 500 square meters on the lower fuselage of a Boeing 747 jumbo. For this, Lufthansa Technik had also obtained approval from the European flight safety system EASA.

Lufthansa Technik and BASF intend to consistently develop the new technology further in the direction of additional aircraft types and even larger areas. In the first model calculations, up to 3 percent of CO2 emissions could be avoided with shark skin technology, the companies explained.