Abstract
The main purpose of this work is to investigate the performance of a hybrid fuel cell/battery powertrain concept for a lightweight helicopter in an urban air mobility scenario. Three different hybrid configurations are compared with a battery-electric design and a performance study is carried out over three specific missions, to identify the most appropriate design in each considered operative condition.Results show that a hybrid configuration may outperform the battery-electric one if a suitable balance between power sources is found. The hybrid design with a 70 kW fuel cell triplicates the number of regional transports completed by the battery-electric configuration, but it is less performing on urban routes. On the other hand, a 90 kW fuel cell, turned out to provide enhanced performance for high-power duty cycles, as for an urban mission.In general, the optimal hybrid configuration, in terms of achievable range, strictly depends on the specific duty cycle.
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