It is not surprising that the transportation sector should be the first to apply shark skin technology to their products. What is unexpected is that the unique contours of dermal denticles should be used by the air transportation industry before being applied to ships. Preliminary calculations indicate that airlines could stand to save billions in fuel by the addition of shark-like scales to the bodies of airplanes (Mullins 1997). One estimate concludes that the 8% reduction in drag that has been shown in aircraft with experimental ribbed exteriors could represent a fuel savings of 1.5% (Ball 1999). Another, perhaps more optimistic estimate claims that a specific aircraft, the Airbus A340-300, could save 3% on fuel. This estimate is then applied to the weight of the aircraft, replacing the weight of the saved fuel with passengers then adding the additional sales to the total savings. The final annual savings is estimated at 6% per flight, or around one million US dollars per aircraft per year.

         In the summer of 2000 public interest was raised by the release of a new swimsuit. As odd as it sounds, in the pre-Olympic frenzy the media actually chose to focus on Spedo's revolutionary new product, rather than the Dream Team's margin of victory.  In retrospect, the attention seems to have been worth it.  A full 83% of medals awarded for swimming events in Sydney went to those swimmers who donned the new suit (not shown below).