Browse Topic: Electric aircraft
Improvement and evolution of all aircraft technologies and the commercialization of new technologies are essential to the carbon-net-zero goal of air mobility. Passenger aircraft are required to provide the ultimate in comfort, economy, and safety, and gas turbine engines will not disappear, while promoting the conversion to SAF and hydrogen fuels. The More Electric Engine (or MEE) concept, which has been proposed since the late 2000s, is one alternative. This paper focuses on the electrification of engine accessories. When the concept of electrification of engine accessories was first presented at Aerotech 10 years ago, the discussion at Aerotech seemed to be negative. Attaching a motor to conventional engine accessories would obviously increase the weight. Next, the conventional engine accessories are centrally controlled and only FADEC is in command, but electrification of engine accessories will increase the cost by adding intelligence to all the accessories. On a more academic
The goal of the development of an electric aircraft engine is to create an aircraft system that achieves ultimate efficiency using hydrogen fuel instead of fossil fuels. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on reducing weight as much as possible, and this paper describes the approach to such fuel cell-powered aircraft. The authors have adopted a superconducting coreless rotating electric machine with an integrated hydrogen tank and are pursuing a target of 70kg or less for the main components of a 2MW rotating electric machine. High-temperature superconducting cables have zero electrical resistance and can carry a very high current density, but the alternating current (AC) loss generated when used in AC has been an issue in their application to rotating electric machines. In 2023, The SCSC cable was developed to be a low-AC-loss, robust, and high current cable concept, in which copper-plated multifilament coated conductors are wound spirally on a core. In addition to using this
SABERS, as this portfolio of innovations is named, refers to Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety. Developed jointly at NASA’s Glenn, Langley and Ames Research Centers, SABERS includes several advanced material, manufacturing and computational design innovations that enable a new paradigm in battery performance. The primary target application is next-generation electric aviation propulsion systems, yet SABERS will benefit other applications, too.
Batteries for eVTOL aircraft need to deliver high power for efficient takeoff and landing, as well as high energy for the cruise period. To meet these demands, designers must consider the power-energy tradeoff of batteries and integrate a reliable battery management system into the overall design. Multiphysics simulation can be used to evaluate this tradeoff and consider all design requirements in a way that is comprehensive and saves time. In recent years, more and more organizations have announced their development of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) systems and, in some cases, are even showing previews of systems that are intended to hit the market in just a few years. As new design ideas emerge, there is one important question that needs to be asked: To keep up with the developments in eVTOL aircraft, what design requirements need to be considered for the batteries that power them?
Lilium Munich, Germany +49 151-539-19945
The extent of automation and autonomy used in general aviation (GA) has been steadily increasing for decades, with the pace of development accelerating recently. This has huge potential benefits for safety given that it is estimated that 75% of the accidents in personal and on-demand GA are due to pilot error. However, an approach to certifying autonomous systems that relies on reversionary modes limits their potential to improve safety. Placing a human pilot in a situation where they are suddenly tasked with flying an airplane in a failed situation, often without sufficient situational awareness, is overly demanding. This consideration, coupled with advancing technology that may not align with a deterministic certification paradigm, creates an opportunity for new approaches to certifying autonomous and highly automated aircraft systems. The new paths must account for the multifaceted aviation approach to risk management which has interlocking requirements for airworthiness and
In commercial aerospace, the application areas for motors are wide and varied, each with their own unique requirements. From electric vehicle take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxis to business jets to long-haul commercial transport aircraft, DC motors must endure various environmental conditions like extreme temperatures, shock and vibration, atmospheric pressures and signal interference, to name just a few. These applications may also demand motors that provide a fast response, high power or torque density. In addition to these requirements, the aerospace industry perpetually calls for lightweight materials and smaller installation spaces. Taken together, it can be very difficult to specify and buy a reliable motor for mission-critical equipment. This article will present common commercial aerospace applications that pose performance and environmental challenges for DC motors along with a summary of the stringent aerospace industry standards that the motors must satisfy. It will also
Airbus Toulouse, France +33 6 34 78 14 08
Airbus Toulouse, France +33 6 34 78 14 08
With increasing interest in the urban air traffic market for electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles, there are opportunities to enhance flight performance through new technologies and control methods. One such concept is the propulsion wing, which incorporates a cross-flow fan (CFF) at the wing's trailing edge to drive the vehicle's flight. This article presents a wind tunnel experiment aimed at analyzing the aerodynamic characteristics of the propulsive wing for the novel eVTOL vehicle. The experiment encompasses variations in angels of attack, free stream velocities and fan rotational speeds. The result verifies that cross-flow fans offer unique flow control capabilities, achieving a tested maximum lift coefficient exceeding 7.6. Since flow from the suction surface is ingested into the CFF, the flow separation at large angle of attack (up to 40°) is effectively eliminated. The aerodynamic performance of the propulsive wing depends on the advance ratio and angle of
Advanced flight control system, aviation battery and motor technologies are driving the rapid development of eVTOL to offer possibilities for Urban Air Mobility. The safety and airworthiness of eVTOL aircraft and systems are the critical issues to be considered in eVTOL design process. Regarding to the flight control system, its complexity of design and interfaces with other airborne systems require detailed safety assessment through the development process. Based on SAE ARP4754A, a forward architecture design process with comprehensive safety assessment is introduced to achieve complete safety and hazard analysis. The new features of flight control system for eVTOL are described to start function capture and architecture design. Model-based system engineering method is applied to establish the functional architecture in a traceable way. SFHA and STPA methods are applied in a complementary way to identify the potential safety risk caused by failure and unsafe control action. PSSA with
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which is used extensively in both military and civilian fields, has the advantages of good maneuverability, high cruising speed, and low requirements for the takeoff and landing modes. Robust and stable control is crucial to ensuring its safety because the dynamics model of an eVTOL aircraft will change significantly between fixed-wing and vertical takeoff and landing mode. In this paper, we first study the structural characteristics of the eVTOL aircraft and establish its dynamic model by considering typical flight modes and mechanical parameters. Then we design a closed-loop controller based on cascade PID technique. Finally, the effectiveness of the control algorithms is verified based on the semi-physical flight simulation platform, which can lower the development cost of control algorithms significantly. The simulation results demonstrate that the cascade PID control scheme accelerates the implementation of the robust
The advanced air mobility sector — which includes electric-powered urban and regional aircraft — may become a $1.5 trillion market by 2040. New startup Aerovy Mobility could benefit airport and vertiport operators and real estate developers looking to establish advanced air mobility technology at existing and potential sites.
A team of MIT engineers is creating a one-megawatt motor that could be a key stepping-stone toward electrifying larger aircraft. The team has designed and tested the major components of the motor and has shown through detailed computations that the coupled components can work as a whole to generate one megawatt of power — at a weight and size competitive with current small aero-engines.
Joby Aviation Santa Cruz, CA 831-201-6700
Advancements in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft have generated significant interest within and beyond the traditional aviation industry. One particularly promising application involves on-demand, rapid-response use cases to broaden first responders, police, and medical transport mission capabilities. With the dynamic and varying public service operations, eVTOL aircraft can offer potentially cost-effective aerial mobility components to the overall solution, including significant lifesaving benefits. The Use of eVTOL Aircraft for First Responder, Police, and Medical Transport Applications discusses the challenges need to be addressed before identified capabilities and benefits can be realized at scale: Mission-specific eVTOL vehicle development Operator- and patient-specific accommodations Detect-and-avoid capabilities in complex and challenging operating environments Autonomous and artificial intelligence-enhanced mission capabilities Home-base charging systems
Hybrid electric aircraft propulsion is an emerging technology that presents a variety of potential benefits along with technical integration challenges. Developing these new propulsion architectures with their complex control systems, and ultimately proving their benefit, is a multistep process. This process includes concept development and analysis, dynamic simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, full-scale testing, and so on. This effort is being revolutionized and indeed enabled by new digital tools that support increasing the technology readiness level throughout the maturation process. As part of this Digital Transformation, NASA has developed a suite of publicly available digital tools that facilitate the path from concept to implementation. This paper describes the NASA-developed tools and puts them in the context of control system development for hybrid electric aircraft propulsion. The three MATLAB®-based software packages are the Toolbox for the Modeling and Analysis of
For the past three decades, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have reigned supreme – proving their performance in smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. But battery researchers have begun to approach the limits of Li-ion. As next-generation long-range vehicles and electric aircraft start to arrive on the market, the search for safer, cheaper, and more powerful battery systems that can outperform Li-ion is ramping up.
Electric aviation mirrors the early stages of the electric vehicle revolution After decades of tantalizing breakthroughs in battery technology, the last decade witnessed the emergence of energy storage as a challenger to fossil fuels for powering vehicles. We are now in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the energy landscape and electrify all forms of transportation: light duty passenger cars, heavy duty commercial vehicles, as well as various forms of transportation such as trains, ships, and aircraft. Such a dramatic transition will require a multifaceted approach that takes into consideration technology needs, infrastructure support, workforce transitions, safety and regulations, and energy justice. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, with numerous public and private sector collaborators, has been strategizing about this transition to ensure the lessons from the past are applied to the future.
Electrification is seen as having an important role to play in the fossil-free aviation of tomorrow. But the more energy-efficient an electric aircraft is, the noisier its propellers get. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have developed a propeller design optimization method that paves the way for quiet, efficient electric aviation.
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