A fly-off on Tuesday afternoon between a 2002 Cessna Citation CJ1 (N44VS) equipped with Tamarack Aerospace’s Atlas active winglets and a stock 1997 CJ1 (N741CC) resulted in the retrofitted model outpacing its older competitor. The event, sponsored by Tamarack and monitored by AOPA and the National Aeronautic Association, had the two aircraft fly a nearly 1,200-nm course from Portland, Maine, to West Palm Beach, Florida. According to Textron Aviation, a stock CJ1 has an NBAA IFR range (four passengers) of 1,127 nm.

N741CC spent 5 hours and 37 minutes in the air, not including 45-minute fuel stop in Columbia, South Carolina. Meanwhile, N44VS, the Atlas-modified CJ1, was able to make the trip nonstop in 4 hours and 36 minutes.

According to Tamarack, N741CC could climb only to FL360 and was forced to stop to refuel after needing to change course due to weather. N44VS, on the other hand, was able to climb directly to FL410 in less than 30 minutes thanks to improved performance from the winglets and was thus able to use a more direct route, landing with more than 700 pounds of fuel remaining.

Overall, the unmodified CJ1 burned more than 1,000 pounds of fuel than its competitor. “Comparing these two flights, we saw about a 30 percent more efficient flight profile in terms of fuel consumption,” said Tamarack CEO Nick Guida.