Green Freighter Systems

Abstract

This paper presents the systems architecture of the Green Freighter, a new pilotless freighter aircraft. As no passengers or pilots will fly aboard this freighter aircraft, it is expected that many systems, particularly the environmental control system, could be modified or removed completely. Thus, the options for the new systems architecture will be elaborated on, followed by a description of the environmental control system model. Then the design of the new environmental, temperature and pressure control system variants, under consideration for operation in the cabin or in special containers only, will be explained. This is followed by a trade-off based on economic performance, which shows that the removal of various passenger and pilot-related cabin systems and the newly designed freight-dedicated environmental control system will allow operators of the Green Freighter to reduce direct operating costs by roughly 3.5%, while reducing environmental impact. Economically speaking, this means that operators of the Green Freighter can save up to $5.3 million per aircraft per year, depending on operator strategy.