System Level Study of Light Sport Aircraft with Conventional and Unconventional Propulsion Systems

Abstract

AbstractUnconventional propulsion systems, such as electric motors, fuel cells with propellers or ducted fans have been considered as significant enablers for reducing aviation carbon emissions. However, the power and energy magnitude required for transport aircraft and other large aircraft are beyond the capability of the state-of-the-art electric propulsion technologies. In this paper, the overall aircraft level study on both conventional and unconventional propulsion systems is carried out. Based on the in-house overall aircraft design framework, multi-disciplinary results of the baseline light sport aircraft are achieved. Through comprehensive sensitivity studies of different propulsion systems, system level comparison results have been obtained. As compared to the worst case, LSA with conventional propulsion systems can achieve more than 30% fuel burn reduction at best flight speed and flight altitude condition. The electric retrofit result has shown that promising fuel burn reduction (carbon emission reduction) can be achieved at the costs of significant flight range decrease, which might give some indications to the selection of propulsion systems for future light sport aircraft development.KeywordsHybrid electric propulsionAircraft designLight sport aircraftMulti-disciplinary analysisElectric propulsion aircraft