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Six Options Are Recommended

• Engine-out taxiing has the potential to save 8.1 million gallons of fuel annually.
• Maintaining optimum flight level and speed, including using step-climbs and continuously adjusting speed, will reduce fuel use.
• Reducing aircraft weight, even a reduction of 655 pounds for each aircraft, would save 1.7 million gallons of fuel per year.
• Reducing the use of the aircraft auxiliary power unit and using aerospace ground equipment instead could save $4.7 million in fuel cost annually, with savings coming mainly from the C-17 fleet.
• Improving load balancing by altering the center of gravity of loads in the cargo compartment would result in savings of just under one million gallons of fuel per year, but some of these savings might not be realizable because of loading limitations, intermediate stops, and cargo uncertainty and the fact that 65 percent of sorties fly near empty.
• Retrofitting the C-130 fleet with microvanes or finlets could cost about $873,000 annually, but this cost is significantly less than the $2.2 million annual fuel savings.