Optimum number of engines for transport aircraft employing electrically powered distributed propulsion

Abstract Realizing a significant reduction of enroute emissions with respect to greenhouse gases is one major challenge in aircraft design today. Conventional kerosene propulsion systems are going to reach their efficiency limits in near future and it will be very ambitious to fulfill the requirements for future aircraft transportation using conventional engines. Consequently, new approaches for propulsion system design and integration are required to further improve aircraft efficiency through synergy effects. In this paper, a universally electric, short-haul, medium-capacity aircraft utilizing electric motors and battery for motive power is used as datum. The focus lies on the impact of a distributed propulsion system on the aircraft design and flight performance and will not discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the used reference aircraft configuration. Initial studies were performed identifying that the critical design cases for electric motor sizing are the one-engine-inoperative (OEI) flight segments, i.e., the climb gradients required at take-off and landing as well as field length requirements. By increasing the number of installed engines (i.e., motor–fan combinations) the OEI performance requirements may be satisfied with a reduced amount of installed motor and battery system power. An integrated aircraft performance analysis is conducted to estimate the possible net benefit in terms of increased aircraft range when increasing the number of installed engines. Aerodynamic efficiency degradation is considered as well as weight impacts due to electric motor scaling and necessary system architecture modifications. The analysis shows that a 6 % increase in aircraft design range can be achieved when going from 2 to 4 installed propulsive devices.