Influence of Technology Trends on Future Aircraft Architecture

Abstract

In the last thirty years aircraft performance has experienced diminishing returns in terms of efficiency, on the order of 1% reduction in fuel consumption annually since 2010. Meanwhile, according to projections by Airbus and Boeing, air passenger traffic is expected to increase 3.5-4.6% per annum. ICAO has recommended that overall energy efficiency be improved by 2% annually. The rate of increase in demand and decrease in fuel consumption, raises the question of how this goal can be met.In this paper, engine technology advances are identified as the most significant contributing trend to aircraft performance. These trends are extrapolated in order to analyze the conditions that could lead to a potential break in the dominant aircraft architecture. A hybrid analytical-empirical model for aircraft optimization is used to predict the effects of these technological trends on aircraft design. Four technology scenarios are used to analyze the expected performance increase and expected year of break in architecture, for existing airframes and unconstrained airframe geometry.It is found that for existing airframes performance is expected to increase by 6-38% * Graduate Student Researcher, System Architecture Lab, Room 33-409, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Function to Form Mapping and Search for Civil Aeroplane Energy Efficiency

“…Classic examples can be found e.g. in the early aviation history, where disruptive changes were easily conceivable given that the large scale technological lock-in that we know today [5] had not yet taken place. For instance, load carrying airframe skin enabled a wing (form) which efficiently carries both the structural and aerodynamic loads (functions), as opposed to the bi-plane wire-reinforced wings where two distinct forms had been employed to carry out the two functions.…”

“…In rough terms, each function was mapped to a single form, each contributing 𝑝 − elements (a weight and a drag element) to the overall performance count. Despite maintaining the same overall philosophy of 1:1 function-to-form mapping, the Comet reached incomparably higher performance levels than the Flyer by employing different architectural solutions which mapped certain functions to single forms 5 . By this time, stronger materials enabled the wing to carry the aerodynamic loads without compromising its structural integrity.…”

“…The traditional means of addressing the two objectives has been unique, since both the environmental impact and the operating cost optimisation have the same objective function: aircraft fuel burn. However, with increasing awareness that the current fuel-based aeroplane technology cannot be reasonably optimised further [3][4][5], a potential contradiction in requirements emerges for the industry; a detailed elaboration of this state of things is given in [6]. Two principal scenarios can thus be envisaged: either the industry continues facing the contradiction between traffic growth and need to diminishing the environmental impact, or new solutions are put in place to replace the existing technologies and their operating practices.…”

Parametric Modeling of a Long-Range Aircraft under Consideration of Engine-Wing Integration

“…For the development of new aircraft configurations, the obvious trend down to desired highly efficient aircraft can be observed in the recent past: The further development of existing aircraft configurations with local modifications seems more advantageous compared to the design of a completely new aircraft to achieve overall improvements. For example, rather than designing a completely new aircraft, performance improvements were achieved with aircraft that have been equipped with more efficient engines with a higher by-pass ratio [1]. Due to the higher by-pass ratio, the outer diameter of the engine nacelle increases.…”

Numerical simulation for the differences between FTN/WPN engine models aerodynamic influence on BWB300 airframe

“…Positioning the engine over the center-body may distort its lift distribution, thus creating poor cruise aerodynamic (Okonkwo & Smith, 2016). This demonstrates a need for careful engine-airframe integration design (Kellari, Crawley, & Cameron, 2017). To achieve the expected integration design, it is necessary to ensure the engine aerodynamic influence on BWB airframe aerodynamic is understood.…”