YOU COULD SAY THAT JAMES BENHAM, CEO OF JBK( WWW. JBKNOWLEDGE. COM), HAS HIS HEAD IN THE CLOUDS, AND YOU MAY BE RIGHT.
YOU COULD SAY THAT JAMES BENHAM, CEO OF JBK( WWW. JBKNOWLEDGE. COM), HAS HIS HEAD IN THE CLOUDS, AND YOU MAY BE RIGHT.
Benham may spend more time in the sky than on the ground. As an entrepreneur, he flies domestically every week, hitting cities in Illinois, Florida, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New York. Flying in his 1997 Cessna CitationJet, Benham said the only place he doesn ' t fly is out of the country. Benham bought his jet in 2020 and added Tamarack Aero winglets in 2021. He said the winglets are " a total game changer " for his aircraft.
Jacob Klinginsmith, president of Tamarack Aerospace Group, said that winglets have been around for over 100 years. But the active winglet design created by Tamarack founder and CEO, Nick Guida, certified in 2016, elevates the performance of the technology. Tamarack Aerospace now has 28 employees in Sandpoint, Idaho.
Chief Engineer of Tamarack, Nathan Cropper, said that through testing, prototypes, and certification, the active winglets are ready for applications on business, commercial, and military jets.
Benham glowingly shared his love and the benefits of the active winglets for his business jet, " They allow me to fly higher and faster. I can get flying a lot faster by getting to cruising altitude of 41,000 feet in 30- 33 minutes." He said it would typically take him 90 minutes to reach 41,000 feet because, after take-off, he must maintain his flight level at 36,000 feet before transitioning to 41,000 feet, which is his desired altitude.
The application of the winglets to the end of the wings on Benham ' s jet added 2.5 feet per wing, for a total of a five-foot extension on the plane. He said the magic in the winglets is not the extension, but the electromechanical function within the winglets that reduces load. Klinginsmith described this as, " Traditionally, with winglets, you are adding the vertical fin, and the engineering says if we make the fin bigger, we must reinforce it more; if we make it smaller, we get less benefit, but we don ' t have to reinforce it more.” He said with their technology, they can do more with aerodynamics, which alleviates the need for further wing reinforcement. Tamarack ' s capabilities on their active winglet fact sheet demonstrate, " proprietary technology designed to optimize aircraft performance, reduce drag, and improve fuel efficiency across a wide range of platforms."
10 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS