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United Airlines turns to washing to save fuel

By jumperhead on Friday, 13th June 2008

plane3.jpgIt’s amazing what you can achieve with a wash. It gives ugly men a fighting chance of getting women into bed and removes ‘hilarious’ graffiti including ‘also comes in white’ and ‘I wish my wife was this dirty’ from grubby vans.

And that’s not all. A good wash can save you (if you happen to be United Airlines, that is) three million gallons of jetfuel annually.

UA, you see, has signed up with the venerable Pratt & Whitney for a “patented environmentally friendly EcoPower engine wash system”.

What does an “patented environmentally friendly EcoPower engine wash system do? Why, this, silly:

EcoPower uses a closed-loop system with atomized water to wash aircraft engines, thus avoiding potential contaminant runoff.

All this washing can add up to fuel efficiency (the aforementioned three million gallons of jetfuel and 28,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide) and more time on the proverbial wing for United Airlines.

Expect to see all United Airlines with washes implemented by the autumn and reckons washing will do all this:

United expects the washes to reduce fuel burn, eliminate hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and improve exhaust gas temperature margin, which will enhance engine performance.

Greenbang can’t confirm the rumours it may also bring you a box of All Gold on your birthday.

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