The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Secretary of the Air Force to task a federally funded research and development center to conduct an engineering analysis on modifying KC-135R and KC-10 tanker aircraft with winglets and submit a report to the congressional defense committees by May 1, 2009. This research summarizes the main issues that decision makers should consider in the investment in a winglet modification program. The factors that should be included in any decision, such as fuel costs, aircraft utilization, and life-cycle costs are enumerated. Using historical flight data from Air Mobility Command's (AMC) Global Decision Support System-2 and fuel reports from one of AMC's super tanker wings, a cost-benefit analysis is developed to aid in the decision making process. Although the addition of winglets to the KC-135R could reduce future fuel expenditures between $177 million and $1.1 billion over the modification costs by 2042, the second-order effects to current infrastructure may diminish any potential savings achieved by the modification. Further analysis is required on a location-by-location basis to obtain the actual costs of these second-orders effects before any modification decision is made.
Fuel Savings through Aircraft Modification: A Cost Analysis
2009
80 pages
Report
No indication
English
Aircraft , Business & Economics , Logistics Military Facilities & Supplies , Fuels , Modification , Jet engine fuels , Wings , Tanker aircraft , Performance(Engineering) , Cost benefit analysis , Fuel consumption , Range(Distance) , Savings , Aviation fuels , Life cycle costs , Aerodynamic drag , Vortices , Efficiency , Aircraft maintenance , Flight testing , Air force research , Winglets , Wingtip modification , Modification costs , Fuel savings , Aircraft modification , Winglet modification , Fuel use , Fuel costs , Kc- 135 aircraft , Kc-10 aircraft , Second-order effects , Fuel conservation , Hangar requirements , Wingspan
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