Innovation & Technology

How Biomimicry Continues to Optimize Air Travel

A ‘sharkskin’ coating is the latest nature-inspired innovation helping reduce aircraft fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, by reducing frictional resistance.

Published 2 months ago | About a 5 minute read

Image: Lufthansa Group

Industry efforts to improve the sustainability of air travel include everything from fuel-saving behavioral interventions for pilots and rethinking emissions-adding frequent-flyer programs to innovations around sustainable aviation fuels and carbon-labeled travel. But biomimicry, the study of natural design — in this case, how animals move — has potentially the most to teach us about optimizing the efficiency of aircraft themselves.

Image credit: Lufthansa Group

Earlier this month, the first Austrian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER equipped with AeroSHARK surface technology successfully completed its maiden flight. On January 14, the “sharkskin”-coated long-haul aircraft flew from Bangkok to Vienna — the first of four B777-200ERs that Austrian Airlines plans to equip with the technology. The significantly reduced frictional resistance from the film will reduce the Austrian Airlines long-haul fleet’s CO2 emissions and fuel consumption; the modification of the four aircraft will be completed by March 2025.

By applying a total of 830 square meters of sharkskin film per aircraft on the surface of the fuselage and engine nacelles, a saving of approximately one percent of the total fuel consumption per flight can be achieved. Applied to four B777s, the technology can reach savings of about 2,650 tonnes of fuel and over 8,300 tonnes of CO2 — the equivalent of roughly 46 flights from Vienna to New York.

"Reducing our CO2 emissions in flight operations is at the center of our sustainability efforts. The application of the ‘sharkskin’ developed by Lufthansa Technik is an important investment that will enable us to fly our long-haul aircraft more efficiently,” said Austrian COO Francesco Sciortino.

Jointly developed by Lufthansa Technik and BASF, AeroSHARK coating consists of millions of transparent, prism-shaped “riblets” approximately 50 micrometers in size. By mimicking the properties of aerodynamic sharkskin, it optimizes aerodynamics in relevant areas of aircraft. Applied to align with airflow, the riblets improve efficiency by reducing friction; Lufthansa Technik says it can also improve lift if attached to wings.

Austrian Airlines is the first airline to use this technology on the Boeing 777-200ER, but AeroSHARK has already taken to the skies around the world. LATAM was the first airline outside the Lufthansa Group and in the Americas region to adopt the technology. Since December 2023, a modified aircraft has shown approximately a 1 percent reduction in jet fuel consumption in daily operations. Based on the positive results, LATAM plans to retrofit four more Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with AeroSHARK — which is expected to save up to 2,000 metric tons of kerosene and 6,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions (equivalent to approximately 28 flights from São Paulo to Miami on a Boeing 777) annually.

In August 2024, Taipei-based EVA Air became the first Asian airline to embrace the drag-reducing and hence fuel-saving AeroSHARK technology — covering the fuselage and engine nacelles of its entire cargo fleet of nine Boeing 777F long-range freighters modified with the riblet film. EVA said the film has reduced frictional resistance so significantly that fuel consumption and the resulting emissions are reduced by around 1 percent — an annual savings of more than 2,500 metric tons of kerosene and more than 7,800 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

A month later, All Nippon Airways (ANA) — Japan’s largest airline — became the first individual airline worldwide to operate both passenger and freighter variants of the Boeing 777 with AeroSHARK. The first modified Boeing 777F began scheduled cargo flights in early September 2024, with plans to coat a 777-300ER passenger aircraft with AeroSHARK by spring 2025. Both aircraft will have nearly the entire fuselage covered with the sharkskin-inspired film, resulting in estimated annual savings of approximately 250 metric tons of fuel and 800 metric tons of CO2 for each plane.

As of now, 17 Lufthansa Group aircraft modified with drag-reducing riblet film — 12 Boeing 777-300ERs of Swiss International Air Lines and four 777F of Lufthansa Cargo — are roaming the skies. Along with Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-400 the squad has already accumulated more than 100,000 flight hours with AeroSHARK.

Biomimicry in flight

Image credit: Airbus

Airbus has been using biomimetic innovations to improve the efficiency of its plane designs for over a decade. The early adopter also drew inspiration from a shark when developing “sharklets” — vertical wing-tip extensions that resemble a shark’s dorsal fin — which was added as a retrofit to its A320 Family aircraft in 2013. Mounted vertically at the wingtips, these aerodynamic surfaces significantly reduce the size of the wingtip vortex, thus reducing induced drag. Nature-inspired innovations also helped Airbus develop lighter-weight galley partitions (now known as the Bionic Partition) designed to mimic properties of slime mold and bone growth, which allow planes to save a projected 465,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions per year; and the company will install its eXtra Performance Wings, which mimic a bird’s feathers to provide multiple wing configurations that dynamically adapt to flight conditions, for flight testing starting in 2025.