MD-80 Drag-Reducing Kit Wins FAA Approval


Sep 30 , 2011
By Guy Norris
A drag-reducing upgrade kit developed for Boeing MD-80 operators has received supplemental type certification from the FAA.

Developed by Long Beach, Calif.-based engineering company Super98, the first part of the kit is initially designed to reduce fuel burn by 2.5% or more, with a further 1% benefit available from a more extensive upgrade. Fuel savings were verified in flight tests of an instrumented MD-83 in late 2010 and early 2011.

Fuel savings from the Phase 1 kit are estimated at more than $236,000 per aircraft per year based on a $3/gallon oil price, says Super98. The Phase 1 kit is divided into two sub-kits, the first of which includes flap hinge fairings forward and aft, aileron and elevator tab hinge covers, wing-body sealing and wing trailing edge seals. The second sub-kit includes flap segment seals, a windshield fairing, rudder lower gap seal, aileron edge seal, a main landing gear door skid, refaired tail skid and a horizontal stabilizer tip seal.

The additional modifications that will deliver a further 1% drag reduction require more time to install than overnight maintenance stops. They include slat lower trailing edge seals, slat segment gap seals and spoiler trailing edge extensions.

“We’ve got the first parts assembled and they’re ready to go,” says VP-Sales and Marketing Rolf Sellge. Production plans are currently based on providing up to six shipsets per month. Although MD-80s are being replaced throughout the type’s main operating arenas in the U.S. and Europe, Sellge says the wait list for newer Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 models means many will remain in service well into the decade and beyond. Breakeven for the drag kits comes in a year for Phase 1 and a year-and-a-half for the full kit, he adds.

Super98 expects to have the first kits installed around year-end and the first customer for the full package to be on contract in the first quarter of 2012. Overall, more than 700 MD-80s remain in service.

AVIATION WEEK
Dugan Kinetics

117 MD88s x $236,000 (if $3/gal is the price) = $27N savings and a longer life for Bars beloved Douglas jet!

Well if they fix the draggy airframe, that would just leave the brakes, the engines, the flight control system, the trim system, the hydraulics, ground lift dumpers, the wings, twisted crew bag netting, standby instrumentation, leaky windows the elevator, the auto pilot and the avionics to fix.

They're (or should I say we're) making progress :rolleyes:

MD80, built in Long Beach ... engineered on your ramp. If you notice, Boeing jets don't have these "fixes" conceived by Little Lebowski Urban Achievers over beers & "medical" marijuana, Certified from "facility" their parent's basement. Seems like every other year someone has something new to fix what's wrong with a Douglas product. Maybe they should try "intake turbulators," "flying french fries," or "Bio Willie" next. These are guaranteed to increase fuel economy by 11%: http://www.tornadofuelsaver.com/

Really truly, if they start sealing all the big gaps in the MD80's they need to first run one by MSP the last week of January and hose it down good with TYPE IV and try that configuration. Anyone else had that goop bridge the gap on the stabilizer? Takes a pretty good yank to get the trim tab to break the elevator free.

That's the other concern with MD mods. The thing barely does what it does. Even innocuous changes in the hope of making it conform with any other fleet result in fire trucks and emergency evacuations (where the tail doesn't fall off). The margin is marginal.

Exactly why I refuse to wear a seat belt. Much better to get thrown clear of the wreckage versus getting bounced around like a ping pong ball.

Out of curiosity, how many 1980s 737s are flying at Delta? How about Continental? United? American? UsAir? Allegiant? Southwest? Add them up and compare which has had greater staying power.

Fly Douglas Jets :D

http://www.vote29.com/newmyblog/wp-c...ng-300x300.jpg

ring . ring .

LA FSDO: Hello Los Angeles District Office, Certification Officer of the day.
Rolf Gumpschecks: Hello, this is Rolf Gumpschecks
LA FSDO: Rolf Gumps, who?
Rolf Gumpschecks: I'm President of Stabilator Innovations and we've developed a way to make a MD80 40% more efficient by extending the jet pipe and fitting new bearings to the main landing gear. We tested it using a SkyMarks model affixed my partner's mother's treadmill in a controlled environment.
LA FSDO: You mean, her basement?
Rolf Gumpschecks: We prefer to refer to her treadmill as the advanced motion simulator.
LA FSDO: You're putting this on a Douglas product, right?
Rolf Gumpschecks: Yes
LA FSDO: Then go ahead. What could it hurt? This is like a turbine powered DC-3 and you should see the way they fly those in Puerto Rico.
Rolf Gumpschecks: That's what we were thinking. So we have approval?
LA FSDO: Whatever. It's Friday and it's 2pm. I don't even know why I answered the phone. You know Mr. Gumpschecks ... this is how Douglas got that thing Certified back in the day, always Friday, always 2PM. I'm sure you got a bright future ahead of you.

Instead of stealing Delta's saying, shouldn't Douglas have used something dealing with Newton's Second Law. Like "Let Pratts Big Engines accelerate your mass to a moderatel velocity ... ride Douglas jets. or Pratt + Douglas=M*V

Somehow "fly" just seems like an insult to Penguins and Ostriches.

Even I must admit. I would like to see this in DAL Colors.

Anyone know what a "CG Management System" is?

http://www.super98.com/images/pages/717/717_Small.jpg

http://www.super98.com/images/pages/...-II_Config.jpg

Smart ass. :D

Who had that saying first btw? We didn't steal it did we? Or was it just a normal saying at the time? And it still works todY, try this:

You know there are a lot of mods on King Airs. They're well designed but mods just make them even better... or mask the obnoxiousness of a PT-6.