Electrical System Architecture for a Battery-electric Plug-in Hybrid Aircraft

Abstract

The transition to all-electric aircraft requires more than substituting conventional systems with electrical counterparts—it demands a fundamental redesign of the system architecture. The full potential of electrical technologies cannot be realized within configurations originally tailored to conventional propulsion. In this study, a methodological framework is applied in three stages. First, a state-of-the-art analysis is conducted and mapped onto a new aircraft architecture, referred to as the conventional approach. Next, the capabilities of emerging technologies are explored to develop a disruptive approach—a radically new system concept. The inherent drawbacks of this disruptive design are then critically assessed and contrasted with the benefits of the conventional setup. Based on this comparative evaluation, a baseline approach is derived: a hybrid system architecture that aims to overcome the limitations of the disruptive concept while preserving the strengths of the conventional one. The poster presents key findings of this methodology, focusing on the resulting electrical system architecture and the propulsion system layout of a plug-in hybrid battery electric aircraft.