Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

The European Aviation Safety Agency has issued certification of Airbus’s Sharklet wingtip device for CFM-powered A320 family narrowbodies, the manufacturer announced Monday. Airbus said it expects the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to issue its own approval “very soon.”


Airbus now expects its Sharklets to produce a fuel savings of roughly 4 percent—better than originally anticipated.&nbsp; “The annual greenhouse gas emission reduction per aircraft equipped with Sharklets will be approximately 1,000 [metric] tons of CO2—that’s equivalent to taking 200 cars off the roads,” added Airbus executive vice president of programs Tom Williams.


For the flight test campaign, A320s with both CFM56 and IAE V2500 engines have recently taken to the skies with Sharklets. Airbus expects the flight test program to accumulate some 600 flight hours over a nine- to 10-month period. Certification of the remaining aircraft/engine variants with Sharklets will follow “in the coming months,” said. Delivery schedules call for Malaysian low-fare airline Air Asia to become the first customer to take Sharklet-equipped A320s.


Attached to the A320’s wingtip during the assembly process, the composite Sharklets stand 2.4 meters (7.87 feet) tall. Along with cutting fuel burn and emissions, they will add around 100 nm range and allow for a payload increase of up to 450 kilograms (992 pounds). Airbus plans to offer Sharklets as an option on new-build aircraft and as standard equipment on the A320neo family. 
 
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