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Several very practical obstacles presently keeping both riblets and hybrid laminar flow control (HLFC) from inservice applications have been reviewed. For riblets, proving economic viability is a major challenge that will require an order of magnitude reduction in the time to apply them relative to the best application times demonstrated to date. And, this reduced application time must be achievable by non-specialized workers. In addition, the airlines must be convinced that riblets will retain their full performance benefit for five years with minimal additional attention required. Then, to make the total riblet drag reduction worth pursuing, it will be necessary that riblets can be used on wings and talls without adversely impacting flight characteristics which can effect operating economics.