Assessment of Three Commuter Aircraft Concepts from a Transport System Perspective

Abstract

Over the last few years the environmental impact of transport in general and aviation specifically has increasingly gained attention. In this context recent developments focus on new technologies for more sustainable aviation. This paper focuses on the assessment of three novel electric commuter aircraft concepts by comparing them not only with existing aircraft with similar top-level requirements, but also with other modes of transport. By choosing a solution-neutral statement of the problem (here regional travel) and taking into account aspects such as inter-modal door-to-door travel, environmental impact, and noise emissions, a holistic assessment of the proposed aircraft concepts is intended. The evaluation of the aircraft concepts is conducted by considering the proposed aircraft designs as part of a more comprehensive transport system. This transport system includes other modes of transport that may be used for the range in which the proposed aircraft can be operated (e.g. car, train). It also considers the door-to-door travel time by taking into account the available infrastructure. Different modules are used to evaluate the vehicles when used on individual connections (traveling from origin A to destination B) in terms of time, cost, and overall passenger’s choice preference. The model used to describe the choice behavior of the passengers does not only include door-to-door time and travel costs, but also soft factors like e.g. environmental awareness. Taking the example of Germany’s transport system as a use-case scenario, an assessment of the aircraft concepts on a transport system level is attempted. The developed methodology is applied to compare partial aspects of the proposed concepts such as environmental impact, as well as to estimate overall metrics, such as the potential market share of the concepts in the transport sector. Furthermore the impact of possible future scenarios, e.g. the availability of a larger number of airports or the introduction of a tax on emissions, on the overall performance of the proposed concepts is investigated from a transport system point of view.