Major Boeing 737 NG Operators Retrofitting Current Wingtip

flightglobal.com/news/articl … ys-381064/

airliners.net/photo/United-A … 83a45e03b9

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The Scimitar-Tipped Winglet is a new winglet is designed to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of the existing APB blended winglet on the 737NG series. It replaces the tip cap on the current winglet with an scimitar-shaped tip, plus inserts a downward-pointing scimitar-tipped ventral stake near the base of the blended winglet.If you all forgot, or do not know, that is the new winglet they will be using for the future Boeing 737 MAX. The second link shows a new United Boeing 737-800 fitted with the winglet, while the third link gives you a better view of the winglet.

Back in January of 2013, United Airlines has ordered the Scimitar-Tipped Winglet retrofit for Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft. The story, from the first link, states that the first retrofitted 737-800 should be delivered after the new winglet achieves airworthiness certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in October, APB says. It will become the first of eight 737 Next Generation configurations targeted for the retrofit programme. Also, the FAA certification of split scimitar winglets for the 737-900ER is scheduled in March 2014.

This got me thinking about major operators like Southwest, Lion Air, American Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Gol Transportes Aéreos, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and other major 737 Next Generation, who have more 737 NGs on order, and also have the Boeing 737 MAX on order, retrofitting their Boeing 737 NGs with the Scimitar-Tipped Winglet. This includes Ryanair even though they don’t have the 737 MAX on order.

This almost relates to Airbus replacing the current wingtip of their Airbus A320 Family aircraft with sharklets. And since they are starting to retrofit Jetblue’s Airbus A320ceos with Sharklets, will the major Boeing 737 operators listed above consider doing so? And will major Airbus operators retrofit their Airbus A320 Family aircraft’s current wingtip with Sharklets?

And I just read the article below saying that United expects the winglet technologies installed on its 737NG, 757, and 767-300ER fleets to save it more than $200 million per year in jet fuel costs.

airlinesanddestinations.com/ … st-flight/

While the designs for the APB Scimitar Split winglet and the 737 MAX winglet are superficially similar, I do not believe they are the same. The latter is an in-house Boeing design, not an APB collaboration.

While the designs for the APB Scimitar Split winglet and the 737 MAX winglet are superficially similar, I do not believe they are the same. The latter is an in-house Boeing design, not an APB collaboration.

You are correct.