Tiny vanes glued to planes promise big savings for US Air Force

Meanwhile they likely have hundreds or even thousands of lbs of dead equipment in them that accumulates as they are updated over the years. At least that is what happened to the P-3. Removing things is often a lot harder than adding them unfortunately.

Perhaps worth nothing that the last C-17 produced was in 2015, after which the closed the Long Beach plant:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Boeing_C-17_Globemaster_III" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Boeing_C-17_Globemaster_III</a>

&gt; 1% reduction in fuel consumption... will save $14 million dollars per year<p>Implying that the US air force spends $1.4 <i>billion</i> a year on fuel just for the C-17.

1 percent gain from that seems wild.<p>I wonder how they arrived at this. Seems like it would be ideal for some sort of evolutionarily algo perhaps

&gt; Just remember that the brake pads on your car are stuck on with glue next time you tap the pedal.<p>Unrelated to the article&#x27;s point, but what? Maybe the layers of the pad itself are glued together, but no brake pads I have every changed have been stuck to the car with glue in any way. (They are held in place with metal brackets which allow them to slide along a small track when compressed by the brake pistons....)

My car (Yaris in India, not to be confused with 3-10 other cars across the world with the name) has them in headlights, tail lights, under mirror and 5 large lumps on roof. Not at an angle though. I would have expected the science to be ubiquitous and all planes to have them first.

Why not on commercial aircraft?

The concept of laminar flow applied to aircraft seems like a little-explored topic. Clearly there is benefit as the article demonstrates.<p>Imagine these small &quot;microvanes&quot; evolved into 3D printed laminar-flow structures.<p>For example, think a honeycomb pattern extruded into hundreds of small tubes. Or, as another example, aircraft with &quot;fur&quot;...imagine the leading edge of a wing covered in fine stiff bristles. Literally &quot;combing&quot; the air as it passes over the wing.