Feasibility study of hybrid propulsionsystems for light commercial aviation

Following the near future environmental targets set by the aviation industry, there now exists an increasing amount of research and wish on changing the propulsion system of aircraft. The purpose of this study is to analyze the feasibility of implementing a Hybrid Propulsion System in a light commercial aircraft, taking into account some reasonable requirements to fulfill in a 2030 scenario. Those are especially focused on the available payload, range, weight distribution, and power distribution. To this end, the established preliminary sizing methodology is based on modifying the traditional conventional propulsion approach. Furthermore, the methodology takes into consideration each hybrid aircraft configuration, but this paper is based only on a series architecture in which the full power provided by the fuel source is used to charge the batteries that are the main power source of the engines. The final results provide information about the total power and energy required for a traditional flight performance and, despite they overcome the range expectations, they still do not bring much benefits in comparison with conventional propulsion in terms of range. However, the results show the possibility to perform 2,000 km range saving up to 63 % of the fuel consumed. That if, batteries specific energy density turn out to be a key factor for hybrid propulsion. The study shows the technological shortfall that needs to be developed and looked into make hybrid aircraft feasible by 2030