Conceptual design trade study for an energy-efficient mid-range aircraft with novel technologies

Present work demonstrates an initial conceptual design of a medium-range passenger aircraft featuring novel technologies being investigated under the German Cluster of Excellence SE2 A (Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Aviation). Novel aircraft and engine technologies include the hybrid laminar flow control, active load alleviation, boundary layer ingestion, ultra-high bypass ratio turbofan engines, and new materials and structures. To design such an aircraft, major trade studies and multi-disciplinary design optimization (MDO) were performed using a multi-fidelity analysis approach. The open-source aircraft design environment SUAVE was modified and integrated with other aircraft design and analysis tools to assess the performance of the aircraft equipped with the mentioned technologies and compared against the reference Airbus A320 aircraft. Results demonstrate reduction of the fuel burn by 43.6% with a forward-swept wing and by 36.7% with a backward-swept wing due to the benefits introduced by the novel technologies. © 2021, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved