Hybrid electric aircraft

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In the case of a hybrid electric aircraft , a combustion engine is combined with an electric engine in order to increase overall efficiency or to increase the range. Due to the efficiency gains as fuel savings, the consumption costs could potentially be reduced, which could help this technology achieve a market breakthrough.

technology

As long as the power density of batteries is not yet sufficient for longer flights and larger electric aircraft, hybrid aircraft are a kind of bridge technology . To increase efficiency, the high energy density of combustion fuels is advantageously combined with the high efficiency of electric drives.

advantages
  • Overall, significantly lower energy consumption is possible compared to aircraft with a pure combustion engine.
  • Lower noise pollution possible thanks to the quieter electric drive.
disadvantage
  • Both electrical and conventional drive components have to be duplicated to a certain extent, which increases the weight, for example.
  • Rather, only limited ranges make sense, from short to medium distances .
Comparison of the drive trains in hybrid electric aircraft, above: parallel, below: serial

Serial hybrid drive

A suitable concept results from the combination of a gas turbine operated with kerosene , which drives an electric generator with which electric motors could then be used to drive propellers. Gas turbines have a low weight, a high power density and could be operated over long distances with a favorable efficiency range. The electrical energy is temporarily stored in an accumulator . In order to achieve the required rate of climb , the battery is usually switched on for start-up. Once the aircraft has reached its cruising altitude, all that is needed is to run the combustion engine / generator combination. The combustion engine would therefore only have to bring about as much power as is required in cruising flight. When descending or when the aircraft has reached cruising altitude, energy can be fed back into the batteries in some models.

With this drive method, two electrical machines, including a relatively large and heavy electric motor, are required in addition to the internal combustion engine. However, the application of the serial drive train is seen as having the greatest development potential in the future.

Parallel hybrid drive

With the parallel hybrid drive, the aircraft is powered either by an internal combustion engine or a battery-powered electric motor, or both at the same time. The battery can be recharged during flight. With this method, only one electric machine is required, which can also be selected to be smaller than the electric motor for serial drives. The propulsion of multi-engine aircraft in which individual engines have been replaced by electric motors is also referred to as parallel hybrid .

Examples

The largest commercial realizations to date are still the size of sport aircraft or rather small touring aircraft. There are already specific plans and development work in place for use in larger aircraft.

literature

Books
  • Chapter: Electric hybrid aircraft (examples) Klaus L. Schulte: Electric flight - technology, history, future. KLS Publishing, Cologne 2014 ISBN 978-3-942095-44-0 , pp. 230-234
  • Chapter 8: Hybrid-Electric Propulsion. In: Pascal Thalin: Fundamentals of Electric Aircraft , SAE International, 2018, ISBN 978-0-7680-9322-3 , pp. 161-179
items
  • Denis Dilba: The hybrids are coming. In: Technology Review (German edition) March 2018, pp. 10–11

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hybrid-electric aircraft . In: AIR International . March 2020, p. 26 .
  2. ^ Anton Roth: Hybrid drive for the C42 CS. In: aerokurier , No. 11/2019, pp. 84-85
  3. ^ Rainer W. During: New hybrid from Brandenburg. In: FliegerRevue , No. 1/2020, pp. 20–21
  4. ↑ Stephan Hiller: Ampaire 337 electric plane takes off for the first time. In: energyload.eu. July 31, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019 .
  5. ^ Stephan Hiller: E-Fan X: Hybrid aircraft from Siemens and Airbus. In: energyload.eu. January 6, 2018, accessed September 8, 2019 .
  6. ↑ S. Schaal: Airbus is developing a hybrid aircraft with partners. In: electrive.net. June 20, 2019, accessed August 15, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Zunum Aero , accessed December 13, 2019
  8. ↑ Laura Grohan: Zunum Aero - the Tesla of the air. In: eMobility. Retrieved August 3, 2020 .
  9. ↑ The British want to build hybrid airliners for 70 passengers. In: Flugrevue.de. July 20, 2020, accessed July 23, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Linnea Ahlgren: A New Era: EAG Unveils World's First 70 Seat + Hybrid Passenger Plane. In: simpleflying.com. July 20, 2020, accessed July 31, 2020 .