Fri, Dec 09, 2011
European Planemaker Has Challenged Company's Patent On
Winglets
The founder of Seatle, WA-based Aviation Partners says he will
vigerously defend his company's patents for blended winglet
technology being challenged by giant planemaker Airbus. The
European company has made "Sharklets" one of the primary selling
points for its A320neo, which it markets as being a more
fuel-efficient airplane than the existing A320.
"We are certainly surprised by the lawsuit attempting to
invalidate our patent on Blended Winglets after working closely
with Airbus over the past five years," said Joe Clark,
founder and CEO of Aviation Partners, in a statment released
Wednesday. "We have had many meetings with their engineering group
and top executives, both in America and Europe.
"We have built and flown patented Blended Winglets on the Airbus
A320 in Toulouse. We have flown them on one of JetBlue's A320s
using JetBlue flight crews with excellent results achieved –
a 5 percent fuel savings – all of this with the cooperation
of Airbus.
"What I can tell you is that we will vigorously protect our
patented technology and intellectual property, which is currently
saving the world billions of gallons of fuel on Boeing, Dassault,
Hawker, and Gulfstream airplanes.
"This is all about efficiency. We want to get our Blended
Winglet technology on as many airplanes as possible to save as much
fuel as possible. We are just trying to do our part in a changing
world."
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