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The integration of on-board systems design within the aircraft design process is often considered only in the late part of the initial design. This is acceptable for civil aircraft using standard technology systems. However, facing with MEA and AEA concepts and different possible architectures, the systems design and the assessment of their effects on the overall aircraft should be moved up in the usual design process. This paper deals with evaluation of the effect of different on-board systems architecture, with a different electrification level, on the overall aircraft design. These effects have been evaluated using three different MDA workflows developed within the AGILE4.0 European research project. The workflows are defined with an increasing number of disciplines to show how the effect of a proper selection of a systems architecture is differently caught by each one. In this way it is possible to define which disciplines should be included for the systems architecture assessment. The results show a save of 1% of MTOM for the AEA applied to a small turboprop aircraft when only the OBS mass is assessed. Increasing workflow complexity, adding performance and engine design the save increase to 1.2%. Finally, the save increases to 1.3% when the effect on engine SFC is also considered. &nbsp

During the recent decade a lot of research has been focused on identification of the importance of regional airport for the local economy and the measuring and predicting of the airport’s efficiency. With regard to individual airport planning it turns out that airports are not free in the optimization of infrastructure due the need to comply international aviation standards and recommended practices, one the one hand, and the tendency of air transportation system development including aircraft design and airlines’ fleet development, on the other. Furthermore, it is also important to take into account the specificity of each particular airport, including the traffic variability resulting from seasonality, with the airport’s mission geared to it. We found, tha t one of the reasons for the relatively low efficiency of regional airports, given the general trend in the growth in the number of seats for narrow-body aircraft. Likewise, it has been found, that the seasonality of air traffic at regional airports is comparatively high. In addition, this paper spotlights the ways the theoretical model of returns to scale affects the efficiency of the apron of the regional airport and briefly discusses the different interpretations of the definition of regional airport.

The aviation world is dealing with the development of new and greener aviation. The need for reducing greenhouse gas emission as well as the noise is a critical requirement for the aviation of the future. The aviation world is struggling with it, and a compelling alternative can be the electric propulsion. This work aims to present THEA-CODE, a tool for the conceptual design of hybrid-electric aircraft. The tool evaluates the potential benefits of the electric propulsion in terms of fuel burnt and direct and indirect CO2emissions. THEA-CODE is suitable not only for conventional “wing-tube” configurations but also for unconventional ones, such as the box-wing. The results show a significant reduction of fuel burnt adopting batteries with energy density higher than the current state of the art. A procedure to find the potential best compromise configurations is presented as well.

International audience; Modern transport aircraft wings have reached near-peak levels of energy-efficiency and there is still margin for further relevant improvements. A promising strategy for improving aircraft efficiency is to change the shape of the aircraft wing in flight in order to maximize its aerodynamic performance under all operative conditions. In the present work, this has been developed in the framework of the Clean Sky 2 (REG-IADP) European research project, where the authors focused on the design of a multifunctional twistable trailing-edge for a Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) wing. A multifunctional wing trailing-edge is used to improve aircraft performance during climb and off-design cruise conditions in response to variations in speed, altitude and other flight parameters. The investigation domain of the novel full-scale device covers 5.15 m along the wing span and the 10% of the local wing chord. Concerning the wing trailing-edge, the preliminary structural and kinematic design process of the actuation system is completely addressed: three rotary brushless motors (placed in root, central and tip sections) are required to activate the inner mechanisms enabling different trailing-edge morphing modes. The structural layout of the thin-walled closed-section composite trailing-edge represents a promising concept, meeting both the conflicting requirements of load-carrying capability and shape adaptivity. Actuation system performances and aeroelastic deformations, considering both operative aerodynamic and limit load conditions, prove the potential of the proposed structural concept to be energy efficient and lightweight for real aircraft implementation. Finally, the performance assessment of the outer natural laminar flow (NLF) wing retrofitted with the multifunctional trailing-edge is performed by high-fidelity aerodynamic analyses. For such an NLF wing, this device can improve airplane aerodynamic efficiency during high speed climb conditions.

An increasing number of aircraft is equipped with wing tip devices, which either are installed by the aircraft manufacturer at the production line or are retrofitted after the delivery of the aircraft to its operator. Installation of wing tip devices has not been a popular choice for regional turboprop aircraft and the novelty of the current study is to investigate the feasibility of retrofitting the British Aerospace (BAe) Jetstream 31 with an appropriate wing tip device (or winglet) to increase its cruise range performance, taking also into account the aerodynamic and structural impact of the implementation. To the best of the knowledge of the authors, no previous study exists which has attempted to assess the winglet retrofit of an existing aircraft type of similar size and operating profile. The optimal winglet design achieved a 2.38% increase of the maximum range by reducing the total drag by 1.19% at a mass penalty of 3.25%, as compared with the baseline aircraft configuration. Other designs were found to be more effective in reducing the total drag, but the structural reinforcement required for their implementation outweighed the achieved performance improvements. Since successful winglet retrofit programs for typical short to medium range narrow body aircraft report even more than 3% of block fuel improvements, undertaking the project of installing an optimal winglet design to the BAe Jetstream 31, should also consider a Direct Operating Cost (DOC) assessment on top of the aerodynamic and structural aspects of the retrofit.

WOS: 000377357000003, In this paper, first and second laws of thermodynamics are applied on a turboprop engine of a regional aircraft. Performance parameters of the engine are assessed under take-off conditions and maximum power settings. Energy and exergy rates, exergy destruction rate, improvement potential, fuel depletion rate and productivity rate are proven by using component-based analysis method. Exergy destruction rates are found to be 337.12 kW, 1461.87 kW, 69.74 kW and 269.22 kW in order of air compressor, combustion chamber, gas turbine and free turbine. In addition, exergy efficiencies of the air compressor, combustion chamber, gas turbine and free turbine are calculated to be 86.95%, 82.16%, 97.86% and 85.52%, respectively, whilst energy and exergy efficiencies of the engine are found to be with the values of 27.89% and 26.74%. Obtained results from this study can be useful to improve performance of a turboprop engine still in service.

WOS: 000323534900066, To develop approaches that effectively reduce engine environmental effect of aircrafts, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that have enabled improvements in thermodynamic efficiency of aircraft engines. In the present work, a turboprop engine used in regional aircrafts that produces 1948 shp and 640 N.m torque is examined using exergo-environmental method. The results show compressor, combustion chamber, gas generator turbine, power turbine and exhaust nozzle create 9%, 69%, 13%, 7%, 2% of total environmental impact of the engine, respectively. According to rates, the compressor and gas turbine can be considered first to improve in case of component related environmental impact. Furthermore, total component related environmental impact for the turboprop engine is found to be 2.26 mPts/s for the constructional phase and 234 mPts/s for the operation/maintenance phases. Accordingly, it is suggested that, in order to estimate environmental impact metric of aircrafts, the exergo-environmental analysis can be employed for aircraft propulsion systems