Conceptual Design and Preliminary Analysis of Short Range Aircraft Concepts with Hybrid Electric Propulsion

Kurzfassung

Hybrid electric propulsion enables significant configurational changes which can improve aerodynamic performance and structural weight, thus leading to more efficient aircraft. In the scope of Clean Sky 2 ONERA, TU Delft, NLR, and DLR elaborated a number of promising hybrid electric configurations for a typical short range mission transporting 150 passengers at Mach 0.78. The entry into service is envisaged for 2035. Twelve of these concepts have been analyzed at the conceptual aircraft design level at DLR. The results show a reduction potential of the block energy up to 6% compared to the conventional reference configuration with the same technology level. The drivers for the improvement are distributed propulsion enabling powered yaw control, boundary layer ingestion, and more efficient gas turbines supported by electric motors. Further sensitivity studies show the impact of the individual technologies at aircraft level. In this paper, the background information for hybrid electric propulsion is given, the applied methodology of the sizing process is explained, the analyzed aircraft configurations are described, the analysis process is depicted, the results are shown and discussed, the conclusion is drawn, and an outlook related to subsequent work is presented.