Conceptual Design Studies of Short Range Aircraft Configurations with Hybrid Electric Propulsion

In this paper, the activities at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) related to the
conceptual design studies of aircraft configurations with hybrid electric propulsion for a
typical short range commercial transport mission in the scope of the European Clean Sky 2
program in the project “Advanced Engine and Aircraft Configurations” (ADEC) are
described. The configurations analyzed incorporate different hybrid powertrain
architectures consisting of gas turbines, electric machines, and batteries. Technologies as
distributed propulsion are utilized for the boundary layer ingestion at the fuselage and for
the powered yaw control. The synergetic effects of a canard configuration and a BLI
propulsor at the rear of the fuselage are investigated. The focus of this paper is on the
quantitative evaluation of configurations utilizing a conceptual aircraft sizing workflow built
in the DLR’s “Remote Component Environment” incorporating semi-empirical and low
level physics based methods. In order to depict the rationale behind the investigated aircraft
configurations, a brief overview of the foregone downselection process is given. The concepts
evaluated in the scope of this work are shown. The multi-disciplinary overall aircraft sizing
workflow is described. An overview of reference configurations is given. The design space
studies of configurations with hybrid electric propulsion are presented. The most promising
configurations are shown in detail and compared to the advanced reference aircraft. Finally,
a conclusion is drawn and an outlook is presented.
 

This project has received funding from the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 807097 . The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Clean Sky 2 JU members other than the Union.

The results, opinions, conclusions, etc. presented in this work are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily represent the position of the JU; the JU is not responsible for any use made of the information contained herein.