In this page you will regulary find a summary of the work performed and main achievements.
Work progress over the first 9 months of EXAELIA
Main activities in the project are the development of three disruptive aircraft configurations, each with 1-2 propulsion concepts, and with enabling aircraft and propulsion technologies. The three aircraft configurations are: blended wing-body (BWB) aircraft powered by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), BWB aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen (LH2), and tube-and-wing (TAW) aircraft powered by LH2. These three aircraft concepts are analysed with respect to their benefit to climate neutrality and on their technical feasibility. The same analysis is carried out on a state of the art conventional configuration and on an incrementally improved variant of this aircraft configuration, to be used as references. The analyses are based on advanced multi-disciplinary processes. Engineering methods have been further developed for requirements engineering, for interfacing the different models for the aircraft concept design, and for assessing the impact of the future long range aircraft on aviation. Stakeholder needs were identified and mapped for deriving sustainability requirements and assessment metrics.
Top level aircraft requirements for the future long range aircraft have been developed taking into account the current use of such aircraft and future trends, as well as the need to trace the benefits assessed to new architectures/technologies. Certification guidelines have been identified for the development of the three aircraft concepts.
Most importantly, criticalities for these aircraft configurations are identified that may impact the achievable benefits and technical feasibility. Appropriate means for de-risking are identified. Flight test needs are further detailed. Three modular FTB families will be defined, taking into account the outcome obtained from the review of existing and past FTBs. These three families are aligned with three aircraft concepts, but not as (scaled) flying versions of the full concepts: the BWB FTB family, the LH2-TAW FTB family and the propulsion FTB family. The first two families focus on challenges associated with the large airframe modifications of the BWB and LH2-TAW aircraft concepts, respectively, whereas the third family addresses the integration aspects of the advanced propulsion concepts. Conceptual designs and preliminary designs are developed for at least one member of each of the three families.
In parallel, two FTB demonstrators are developed to de-risk the development of the FTB families and for demonstrating advanced experimental and measurement technologies.
The main results expected from the project and their specific impact are:
1. Improved aircraft conceptual design processes, including as well design process for propulsion concepts, and enabling technologies. Such processes can be used for further exploration of the wide design space for future long range aircraft.
2. Long-range aircraft concepts showing the potential climate benefits that can be obtained from disruptive changes in the aircraft configuration, propulsion concepts, and enabling technologies and motivating flight test needs.
3. An overview of the aircraft configurations, propulsion concepts and enabling technologies to be de-risked, in particular by flight tests.
4. Definitions and pre-design for FTB families, needed to de-risk future long range aircraft designs, to obtain a deeper understanding of these radical aircraft configuration, propulsion concepts and enabling technologies.
5. New measurement and experimental approaches, to be used with the EXAELIA FTB families to assess corresponding future long-range aircraft concept designs.
6. Roadmaps for future long range aircraft development, including the use of the EXAELIA FTB families for flight testing, accompanied by development, operational and exploitation plans for the FTB families.