Design of a People-Mover Aircraft under Airport Constraints and Comparison to Single-Aisle Aircraft Efficiency

Abstract

The People Mover aircraft is a known concept that is designed to carry a large number of passengers on short range routes optimized for short haul operations. In the past, the aircraft design was focused on economics but with respect to the European Green Deal, future aircraft designs have to reduce their ecological footprint to be sustainable. The question that arises is whether such a People Mover aircraft can contribute towards the climate targets by replacing highly efficient narrow body aircraft, where preliminary results indicate a disadvantage in terms of CO 2 emissions. Therefore, the concept is assessed primarily on its climate impact contribution and secondarily on its economic performance. In this paper, a People Mover design derived from the Airbus A350 is compared to the Airbus A321neo (both depicted in Figure 1) to identify the CO 2 emission and cash operating cost saving potential per passenger seat at a comparable technology level. To match the short a range comfort standard of the A321neo and to identify the potential of the People Mover concept, a study on the maximum passenger number to fit the cabin geometry of the Airbus A350 is conducted. Furthermore, the Airbus A350-1000 is redesigned with respect to the revised top-level aircraft requirements derived from the DLR 2050 market forecast and with focus particularly on the anticipated airport compatibility. Two designs of the People Mover concept for a 65m and 52m span constraint are studied and optimized for short haul operation. For a fair and consistent comparison of the wide body aircraft configuration to a state-of-the-art narrow body aircraft, a comparable technology level is needed. Hence, a foreseen technology scenario in 2035 is applied and all aircraft are redesigned for the evaluation of the concepts utilizing the overall aircraft design environment developed at the DLR-Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics.