United's new winglet design for planes expected to save millions

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A potential aerodynamic retrofit to United Airlines' Boeing fleet could save the company more than $200 million in annual fuel costs, the airline announced Wednesday.

A United Boeing 737-800, retrofitted with the company's new "split scimitar winglet" at the ends of its wings made a successful test flight on Tuesday in Everett, Wash., the company said in a news release.

"This advanced winglet improves on the existing blended winglets United currently has on its next generation 737 fleet," the release said.

In January, the company made a commitment to retrofit its 737-800 fleet, and last month it announced plans to follow suit with the 737-900ER fleet, the release said.

The retrofit consists of replacing the upturned tip at the end of the plane's wings with a "winglet" shaped like a curved sword known as a scimitar, and by adding a scimitar-tipped "ventral strake," or downward-pointing metal piece under the rear of the fuselage, according to the release.

United expects the new split-scimitar winglet to result in approximately a 2 percent fuel savings for the 737. Once the winglets are installed on United's 737, 757, and 767 fleets, the change is expected to save the airline more than $200 million per year in jet fuel costs, the release said.

The airline said it will begin retrofitting its 737-800 and 737-900ER fleets early next year, once testing and FAA certification of the winglets are complete.