Liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft are a promising candidate for reducing aviation’s climate impact, but safe integration requires crashworthiness considerations already at conceptual design. This work presents a parametric, knowledge-based methodology to design and analyse a fuselage-located cryogenic tank supported by a belly crash structure under a vertical drop test. The methodology is implemented in a parametric application that automatically generates geometry from readily adjustable inputs, enabling quick generation of a wide variety of configurations. A baseline configuration, consisting of 12 sub-tank X-beams per bay configured in six X-crosses, a stiff crossbeam design, and distributed Kevlar tank suspension ropes, exhibited favourable deformation kinematics. A design-of-experiments study was conducted and combined with a surrogate-model-based sensitivity analysis to identify the dominant design parameters governing the crash response. Results show that the coupled frame and crossbeam thickness, together with the crash coefficient, are the most influential. Including a crash structure substantially increases the required tank and fuselage length, and the associated mass penalty is dominated by the added tank and fuselage structure rather than by the crash structure mass. The developed model provides a basis for further research on structural mass optimisation and for providing data for a surrogate integration into a conceptual aircraft design tool.

The final report focused on the detailed design of the final chosen concept, which is a BWB aircraft with a distributed propulsion system powered by liquid hydrogen. Before doing the actual technical design part, a market analysis is made to investigate the future demand for this type of aircraft. To do so, the SWOT analysis, market characteristics, and competitor analysis are made. After that, an estimation of the market dynamics & trends, as well as the expected demand for the aircraft is made. In financial analysis, the financial forecast and strategies for the whole aircraft program are discussed, from which the unit cost, operational cost, return on investment and cost-breakdown structure can be found. The report concludes that the Lightning2 program is a promising step towards more sustainable aviation. It emphasizes the need for further development and adaptation to technological advancements to maintain a competitive position in the market​