A New Perspective on Battery-Electric Aviation, Part II: Conceptual Design of a 90-Seater

Battery-electric aviation is commonly believed to be limited to small aircraft and is therefore expected have a negligible impact on the decarbonization of the aviation sector. In this paper we argue that, with the correct choice of design parameters and top-level aircraft requirements, the addressable market is actually substantial. To...

A New Perspective on Battery-Electric Aviation, Part I: Reassessment of Achievable Range

Thus far, battery-electric propulsion has not been considered a promising pathway to climate-neutral aviation. Given current and expected battery technology, in most literature battery-electric aircraft are only considered feasible for short ranges (< 400 km) and small payloads (< 19 pax). As a result, battery-electric aircraft development...

Development of a Hydrogen-powered Fuselage-mounted BLI Propulsor Add-on for Passenger Aircraft

The concept of an "Auxiliary Power and Propulsion Unit" (APPU) is introduced, which consists of a Boundarylayer ingesting (BLI) propulsor with an engine mounted at the rear of an passenger aircraft fuselage, replacing the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and contributing around 10% of total cruise thrust, as well as auxiliary power. This APPU unit is...

Range equation for hybrid-electric aircraft with constant power split

There has been a surge in research related to hybrid-/ electric propulsion (HEP) over the past decade, since this technology has the potential to reduce the energy consumption and in-flight emissions of commercial aircraft and, therefore, to bring the aviation sector closer to the sustainability targets established by the European Commission [1]...

Synthesis of Aero-Propulsive Interaction Studies Applied to Conceptual Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Design

This paper presents a synthesis of aero-propulsive interaction studies performed at Delft University of Technology, applied to conceptual aircraft designs with distributed hybrid-electric propulsion (DHEP). The studied aero-propulsive interactions include tip-mounted propulsion, wing leading-edge distributed propulsion and boundary-layer...

Aero-Propulsive Efficiency Requirements for Turboelectric Transport Aircraft

In this paper a design-of-experiments is performed with the objective of determining the improvements in aeropropulsive efficiency required for a reduction in the energy consumption of turboelectric transport aircraft, when compared to conventional, gas-turbine based alternatives. Simplified representations of the powertrain and the...

Preliminary Sizing of a Hybrid-Electric Passenger Aircraft Featuring Over-the-Wing Distributed-Propulsion

This study compares a hybrid-electric aircraft featuring a propulsive empennage and over-the- wing, distributed-propulsion to a conventional regional turboprop. The impact of multiple design parameters, mission requirements, and technology assumptions on maximum take-off mass and payload-range energy efficiency is evaluated, in order to...

Effect of Propeller Installation on Performance Indicators of Regional Turboprop Aircraft

Four regional turboprop aircraft of different configuration are assessed on their key performance indicators by using an automated conceptual design method. The configurations include two wing-mounted propeller installations (high-wing and low-wing) as well as a fuselagemounted configuration and a tail-mounted configuration. The effect of the...

Conceptual Assessment of Hybrid Electric Aircraft with Distributed Propulsion and Boosted Turbofans

This paper presents the results of a study into the effect of distributed hybrid-electric propulsion on aircraft performance and characteristics. To size these aircraft, a new preliminary sizing method for hybrid-electric aircraft with distributed propulsion, including aero-propulsive interaction, is combined with a modified Class-II weight...

System-level assessment of tail-mounted propellers for regional aircraft

Three regional transport aircraft of different configuration are synthesized for the same design specification using an automated design routine. The first aircraft features wing-mounted propellers, the second aircraft features propellers mounted on the horizontal tail plane, while the last configuration replaces the horizontal and vertical tail...

Semi-Analytical Weight Estimation Method for Fuselages with Oval Cross-Section

This paper presents a semi-analytical method for the weight estimation of fuselages with an oval cross-section, applied to blended wing body aircraft. The weight estimation of the fuselage primary structure is based on a structural analysis of two-dimensional crosssections and it is completed by a set of empirical relations for the weight...

A New Structural Design Concept for Blended Wing Body Cabins

This paper outlines a new concept for a pressure cabin design for blended-wing-body aircraft. An overview is presented of the wide oval cabin and why it is believed to be a possible alternative to existing designs of non-circular pressurized cabins. The perimeter of the oval cross section is formed by four smoothly connecting arcs of different...