An airplane as sleek as a shark – equipped with fuel-saving riblet film

Lufthansa Technik equips the aircraft of its airline customers during regular maintenance layovers in the aircraft hangar.
Over a period of several days, a qualified team applies the adhesive films according to a precise cutting pattern along the flow course of the aircraft fuselage and the engine nacelles.

In order to equip a Boeing 777 with the fuel-saving surface technology on a large scale, Lufthansa Technik uses the aircraft's regular maintenance idle times.

According to a sophisticated design, the film patches are cut to size and attached exactly along the flow course of the fuselage and the engine nacelles. The application of about 2,000 patches is carried out in sections over several days by a trained team. The foil of the riblet film is carefully peeled off by the employees until the adhesive layer is revealed. They then use a rubber squeegee to coat the films firmly, placing around 800 square metres of AeroSHARK riblet film on the Boeing 777F freighter in meticulous manual work.