U.S. active winglet specialist Tamarack Aerospace Group, which recently announced its commercial aviation debut on the De Havilland Canada Dash 8 Q400, is also planning to offer an active winglet upgrade for the Airbus A320.
For the past seven years, Tamarack has produced winglets for Cessna Citation business jets, with around 185 sets already installed on Citation 525 variants. However, during the 2023 Paris Air Show, Tamarack detailed plans to develop eco-efficient winglets for commercial passenger aircraft, starting with the Q400 in partnership with Italian regional airline SkyAlps.
If this letter of intent (LOI) is firmed, SkyAlps will become a profit-sharing joint venture (JV) partner on the new winglet. Under this JV, SkyAlps will receive discounted launch customer pricing and priority installation. In turn, one of SkyAlps’ Q400s will be seconded to Tamarack to demonstrate and certify the new product. SkyAlps launched in 2021 and now has a fleet of five Q400s, which is set to grow to 14 by next summer. The young carrier, which transitioned to its own air operator’s certificate in January, owns it aircraft outright.
SkyAlps was attracted to the Tamarack project because its owner is a green-energy supplier, making sustainability a priority. The Q400 upgrade is expected to cut fuel consumption and emissions by around 7-8%. Tamarack said the modification will also cut noise, improve climb performance and deliver additional range. SkyAlps president and owner Josef Gostner has applied for grants to support the project, paving the way for finalization of the LOI. SkyAlps is also planning to install new cockpit avionics and a lighter-weight cabin on its aircraft.
Modification work on the SkyAlps Q400 will begin over the next couple of months. Once equipped, the aircraft will embark on a Tamarack demonstration tour, starting in November 2023, visiting SkyAlps’ northern Italian home base in Bolzano, before flying on to Dubai and Tokyo.
Tamarack CEO Nick Guida estimates that the Q400 product, named the Eco-Smartwing, will take around two years to certify and bring to market after the SkyAlps LOI is firmed up. Since SkyAlps is based in Europe, the lead certifying authority is expected to be the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), but Tamarack will also seek FAA validation. Guida says this dual approval may be sought simultaneously, depending on workload at the time.
Since the Paris announcement, Guida has been in discussions with “several other airlines” in Europe and North America, with a combined fleet of over 50 aircraft. He adds that one European operator—which will be named in the near future—believes the winglet could make it possible to carry additional passengers on the Q400, strengthening the business case. “I’ve been traveling nonstop,” Guida says. “We are very optimistic about getting the support we need to get this program off the ground.”
When asked whether ATR planned to develop a similar product, ATR Senior Vice President of Engineering Daniel Cuchet said the type’s aerodynamics ruled this out. “In ATR, we have ailerons which are not able to cover winglets,” he explains. “Secondly, we are generally in cruise for an average of 20 min., so the gain with winglets—versus the difficulty to put them on—are not worth it. We did the study and there isn’t any advantage.”
As a next step from the Q400, Guida tells Aviation Week that Tamarack is in discussions with airlines over an active winglet product for the A320. “That’s coming together. We’ve been working on it for about a year now,” he says. Like the Q400 upgrade, the A320 active winglet will be a profit-sharing JV with a series of airline partners. Guida says two or three airlines globally have already expressed an interest in a forming a JV to develop the A320 modification. The A320 upgrade will take about three years to bring to market.
Tamarack’s existing product for the Cessna Citation comprises a light-weight wing extension and composite winglet, which takes 7-10 days to install, because it does not require any structural reinforcement. The upgrade includes a system that automatically controls wing bending during turbulence, without pilot intervention.
In April and May 2019, EASA and the FAA placed operating restrictions on 91 Tamarack-winglet equipped Cessna Citations, following a fatal accident and several incidents. These groundings forced Tamarack into Chapter 11. However, the restrictions were ultimately removed in July 2019 after Tamarack rolled out a modification program.
On March 30, a Cessna 525B operating a positioning flight between Arkansas and Fort Myers, Florida had to perform an emergency landing at Tampa, after one of its Tamarack winglets separated from the aircraft mid-flight. This no-injury incident is currently being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
“We are obviously grateful that nobody was injured in this strange event,” Tamarack President Jacob Klinginsmith said in April. “We’re supporting the NTSB investigation to learn what happened.” Klinginsmith noted that Tamarack tested one-winglet-removed scenarios during its certification process.
