The Air-Vehicle as a Complex System of Air Transport Energy Systems

The aviation sector is facing serious challenges to achieve the environmental goals set up by FlightPath2050 and to cope with the changing behavior of society and political decisions. Besides the gradually increasing efficiencies of air vehicles, these challenges can be managed by implementing alternative energy carriers into the air transport system. The energy carrier itself has a tremendous impact on the propulsion architecture of the air vehicle and the related technology options. After a preselection, four promising alternative energy carrier for future sustainable aviation are investigated for the short-range and mid-range sector in the time-frame of 2050. These are synthetic kerosene, synthetic liquid methane, synthetic liquid hydrogen and the battery with a kerosene range extender only for the short-range class. The final assessment criteria are the direct operating costs on system level incorporating the energy carrier production pathways, the performance behavior of the aircraft concepts as well as the market demand in 2050.