APRIL 2021 VOLUME 14 - No 7 GLIDINGlNTERNATIONAL In This Issue: A 30%April 2021 Increase In Performance Could Be A Possibility1 April 2021 VOLUME 14 - No 7 Editor: John H. Roake Manager: Janice Armstrong Correspondents: lNTERNATIONAL Aldo Cernezzi GLIDING Robert (Bob) Downe Joseph King Myles Hynde Arthur Liddington Gliding International published by: Gliding International Ltd From Offices At: 79 Fifth Ave, Tauranga, New Zealand Phone +64-7-571-4161 Office email: [email protected] Editor’s email: [email protected] The magazine’s web pages can be viewed at www.glidinginternational.com You can subscribe through our web page. INDEX Gliding International is published monthly with the exception of December and January. Ten issues per annum. 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Photo: Milan Kmetovics [email protected] 2 Gliding International April 2021 3 Would You Believe A 30% Improvement In Your Sailplane’s Performance Is Possible ? n eagle eyed subscriber has alerted Gliding International There appears to be no reason why their new design cannot be Tamarack claims that reports of ATLAS-equipped flight control wing loading sensors (located in the aircraft’s fuselage) and a to a unique situation that could (repeat: could) have adapted to high performance sailplanes. departures were overblown, a view shared by the NTSB investigator moveable load alleviation surface. The latter looks like a small Aconsequences on the future performance of the next in charge of the probe of the fatal crash. aileron at the junction of the wingtip and winglet. It’s used to generation of sailplanes. Dialogue will need to take place between Tamarack recently received a Supplemental Type Certificate from essentially “turn-off” the winglet during short gust or manoeuvring sailplane designer engineers and the Tamarack Aerospace Group, a the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for their ATLAS active “One of our customers filed a false pilot report early last year, events, alleviating loading on the wing and thus the requirement for U.S.A. company that appears to have had major success with their winglet system which allows them to claim that ATLAS can reduce reporting a failure of our system. He claimed the outcome of the a beefed-up wing structure that passive winglets impart. new winglet, a design that improves the performance they claim fuel consumption in a business jet by 30-33% - a claim that has met failure was more dramatic than it actually was.” to be at least 30% better than any winglet fitted up to this date. with amazement and not a little scepticism. Guida says he came up with the idea while returning from a Steely Investigators found that the reporting pilot did not have the active Dan concert in 2009. Prior to that he’d spent years as a consulting There will be many hiccups in adapting Tamarack’s winglets to a Critics around Tamarack grew a little louder when its ATLAS system winglet system serviced as Tamarack recommended. Meanwhile, aerodynamic/loads engineer at Aviation Partners working for Joe sailplane, because Tamarack’s 110 winglets now flying world wide came under scrutiny following reports of flight attitude departures the company has repaid all of its creditors, has continued to service Clark. are all fitted to Cessna Citation Jets and the better than 30% they from which pilots had to struggle to regain control. In April 2019, its customers, and secured a confirmed reorganisation plan. are claiming relates in reality to fuel burn consumption. EASA issued an airworthiness directive noting that the active load “I worked on the [API] passive winglets for Hawkers and alleviation system (ATLAS) appeared to have malfunctioned. So the small Sandpoint, Idaho, company appears set to continue Gulfstreams,” Guida says. “The whole time I was doing it, I realised Nevertheless, if a transition is achieved that produces only 50% of in business. It has installed the ATLAS winglets system in over 110 that there had to be a better way. I saw all the disadvantages of the Citation success (?) a major change in the future of gliding is The FAA immediately grounded affected aircraft. Five loss of control aircraft. Despite those sales, it still has a sales job to do on its winglets, not just the good parts.” on the cards. incidents including a fatal accident were noted by the FAA which, performance claims. along with EASA, required changes to Tamarack’s ATLAS system. Among those was the weight generated in the form of structural But lets have a look at what we now know. Although you may not However, the FAA accepted Tamarack’s proposal for compliance But how can the addition of winglets generate a 30% reduction in reinforcement to the wing to handle the aerodynamic loads that have heard of them, the Idaho-based company called Tamarack to the AD, terminating the groundings. A month later, Tamarack fuel burn? By doing more than a pair of passive winglets, Tamarack winglets create. On a 767 that works out to almost 3,000 pounds Aerospace Group have been making noises in aviation circles with received a fresh commitment of investor funding. says. ATLAS is a system that combines the vortex reduction of of additional metal, according to Guida. their “startling performance claim for a compound active winglet traditional winglets with real-time aerodynamic load alleviation, system called ATLAS”, that they have installed on Textron-Cessna The grounding led Tamarack into Chapter 11 bankruptcy a process light weight and increased climb performance. “My idea was that we don’t need to take the winglet up to the business jets. from which it is about to successfully emerge, according to company [maximum] limit-load of the aircraft. The gust manoeuvres [that executives. “We have a lot more explaining to do,” says Tamarack founder, wing experiences] are short lived events. Why do we need to take Conventional passive winglets, the kind you see on airliners like Nicholas Guida. “When we come out of the box setting an informal the whole wing up to the [maximum load] levels during one of these the 737, are generally agreed to be good for a 3% to 4% decrease “We’re almost completely out of the Chapter 11 process at this world record on our first flight (a claimed 1,853 nautical miles in the [brief] events?” in induced drag and corresponding increase in fuel efficiency when point,” says Tamarack President Jacob Klinginsmith. “We’re in company’s CJ), given what’s been claimed (for winglet efficiency) installed on aircraft with large, cruise-optimised wings. The Seattle good health and we’ve continued sales through this process, even we have to train everybody to realise it’s about getting to altitude The small aileron at the wingtip deflects when load sensors detect firm Aviation Partners, which was founded by the late Joe Clark, through the grounding. Things are looking pretty good for the quickly and being efficient at altitude.” vertical loads on the wingtip/winglet, countering the force of popularised the addition of fuel-saving winglets to business jets company’s future.” those loads and the aerodynamic affect of the winglet itself. This and then to airliners in the late 1990s. ATLAS is comprised of a wing tip extension, a highly tuned winglet, momentary “load alleviation” means that the wing does not have 4 Gliding International April 2021 5 to be strengthened, saving weight. It also allows Tamarack to add points out, but common sense would suggest that it’s a necessary more span to the CJ wing. The Tamarack winglets involve an over step for the company’s growth. five feet wing extension, a reason why their claimed performance SOARING of 30% cannot be simply transferred to a newly designed sailplane. For the Tamarack winglet to be a success on a sailplane, some Sailplanes already have that wing extension. Thirty percent better serious research money will be required, and the name of a likely performance is obviously not achievable, but at 50% of the power sailplane manufacturing company likely to get involved also escapes aircraft’s achievable advantage? Just maybe! this reporter as I write. So maybe it’s all just a pipe-dream but certainly a story worth telling. SUPPLIES “But we extend the wing and add a winglet. That’s why we have three to four times the savings in fuel as a passive winglet,” says BUT MEAN TIME & PILOT SHOP Tamarack. The Bombardier Challenger and Cessna Citation XLS series are “If you take a CitationJet, fill it up with fuel and fly, you should be likely candidates for Tamarack’s ATLAS conversions.