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MyBoeingFleet.com is a Web portal to a large repository of Boeing aviation information. The business-to-business site offers customers direct access to information on Boeing airplanes and enhances airlines' ability to work collaboratively with Boeing, suppliers, and each other. Boeing has added a section about fuel conservation to the portal. This new section allows customers to browse for general knowledge or query for specific information that can help them reduce fuel consumption and save money.
By James A. Johns and Masud U. Khan, Flight Operations Engineers, Commercial Aviation Services
For more than 50 years, Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas have published articles and made technical presentations on fuel conservation. Because these articles and presentations were authored by different departments — such as marketing, maintenance, engineering, and flight operations — they were maintained and stored in numerous areas within the company.
In mid-2008, fuel prices increased approximately 91 percent, and customers were urgently in need of fuel conservation information. In response, Boeing consolidated fuel conservation information from across the company on a single Web site. The site includes all of the fuel conservation letters, documents, technical presentations, and data within Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas since the 1960s.
This article guides users through the new Fuel Conservation Web site, describes how to locate information, and outlines Boeing's plans for future additions to the site.
ACCESSING THE FLIGHT OPERATIONS FUEL CONSERVATION WEB SITE
To access the Fuel Conservation Web site, log on to the MyBoeingFleet customer Web portal by going to www.MyBoeingFleet.com. (Those who do not have a MyBoeingFleet user ID may contact their airline's MyBoeingFleet focal, who is authorized by Boeing to provide a user ID. Airlines that do not have a focal should contact Boeing Digital Data Customer Support.)
Logging on to MyBoeingFleet takes the user to a Welcome page that contains information specific to that user. Fuel conservation information is accessed from this page by clicking on the Flight Operations link, which is located in the My Products section. At the Flight Operations home page, the Fuel Conservation link provides access to the main page of the Fuel Conservation site.
INFORMATION ON THE FLIGHT OPERATIONS FUEL CONSERVATION WEB SITE
The Fuel Conservation Web site has three major sections: Articles and Newsletters, Presentations and Courses, and Maintenance Documents. A Related Links section provides access to Web sites both within and external to Boeing that have fuel conservation information (see fig. 1).
ARTICLES AND NEWSLETTERS
Boeing has published articles on fuel efficiency for many years in technical publications for airline customers. These articles cover all aspects of fuel conservation, including flight operations, ground operations, maintenance, and technological advances.
This section of the Web site contains the following:
- Relevant articles from AERO magazine since January 1999.
- Boeing Fuel Conservation & Operations Newsletters that were published from 1981 to 1997 (some of the data within these newsletters dates back to 1974 and earlier).
- Relevant articles from AERO magazine's predecessor, Airliner, from 1961 to 1992.
For example, the Fuel Conservation & Operations Newsletter from April–June 1990 addresses fuel conservation for the 747-400. The issue includes a table that shows the effect of cost indices, climb speed, optimum altitude, cruise speed, descent speed, takeoff flaps selection, and reduced climb thrust on trip fuel. Operators can use the information as a guide in determining how to reduce fuel burn and operational cost for 747 fleets.
PRESENTATIONS AND COURSES
The second section of the Fuel Conservation Web site includes presentations delivered by Boeing and airline experts on strategies, methods, and technologies to reduce fuel consumption. The material typically provides more in-depth information on fuel conservation than the Articles and Newsletters section.
Training course topics include cost index, cruise performance analysis, and the Boeing performance software Airplane Performance Monitoring (APM). The site includes detailed information on how operators can use the APM program for cruise performance analysis, especially for fuel consumption.
In addition to training materials, this section comprises presentations and white papers from Boeing Flight Operations conferences and symposia held since 2003. Topics range from continuous descent final approach to fuel efficiency gap analysis, wingtip devices, weight control, and cruise performance monitoring.
MAINTENANCE DOCUMENTS
Maintenance Documents is the most comprehensive section of the Fuel Conservation Web site. It contains all the fuel conservation maintenance documents that have been published to date by Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas (see fig. 2).
These documents provide information for the identification and detection of drag conditions that can be rectified through maintenance actions, thereby improving fuel economy. Although some of these documents were published many years ago, the aerodynamic data, concepts, and methods are still valid.
The Boeing documents contain fuel conservation information pertinent only to aerodynamics and maintenance of the airplane, while the McDonnell-Douglas documents include information on aerodynamics, flight operations, systems, and performance analysis.
FUTURE PLANS
Boeing plans to continue to add information and data to the Fuel Conservation site. The information will be a function of phase of flight, specific to the various Boeing airplane models, starting with the Next-Generation 737. The goal is to eventually provide model-specific fuel conservation information for the 717, 727, 757, 737 Classic, 747, 767, 777, DC-9, DC-10, MD-11, and future models. Information will cover all phases of flight: taxi out, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent, approach, and taxi in.
SUMMARY
Boeing has developed a Flight Operations Fuel Conservation Web site to help reduce the time and effort spent by customers searching for and retrieving information and data that can help them reduce overall operational costs.
For more information, please contact James A. Johns or Masud U. Khan.