Periodic Reporting for period 3 - HERA (Hybrid-Electric Regional Architecture)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2024-12-31
HERA will identify and trade-off the concept of a regional aircraft, its key architectures, develop required aircraft-level technologies and integrate the required enablers in order to meet the quantitative targeted performance gains defined in the SRIA chapter for an Hybrid-Electric Regional Aircraft and in the topic “HORIZON-JU-CLEAN-AVIATION-2022-01-TRA-01 (referred to as TRA-01 hereafter): Aircraft architectures & technology integration for aircraft concepts ranging from regional to short-medium range applications”.
HERA proposal will span through the regional and up to short-range options allowed in the topic for the reason that the future regional aircraft, thought to operate by mid-2030 on, will contribute to mobility of people and goods over typical distances of less than 500 km. Four distinct but closely interacting aspects to consider.
• On one side, air-vehicles operating in those typical distances and operational environment are considered the first scheduled air transport system able to adopt in-service technologies ready for zero-emission, such as hybrid-electric propulsion, considering technology readiness and feasibility both for the air vehicle and for the infrastructures required to support their operations.
• On the other hand, any smaller typical flight distance will hardly be environmentally efficient and effective in terms of cost for an air vehicle in revenue service compared to surface transport: beyond energy consumption and trip time, it is a matter of flexibility of usage, simplicity of access to the transport means by passengers. For instance, high-speed rail on routes below 500 km requires heavy infrastructures that would be less competitive for their availability and costs by connections offered by regional air transport.
• Aerial regional connections do offer connectivity to passengers at reduced ground usage and infrastructure: regional aerial connections are a smart, safe and speedy mean to connect periphery and centre. It could be the only connection in case of natural barriers impossible or too expensive to overcome for collective and rapid surface transport means. A relevant field of application for the regional air transport are connections to/from remote zones or between islands and mainland.
• Finally, a typical regional trip requires that passengers enjoy connections easily interacting with other transport means and societal aspects. Relevant are frequency, safety, velocity and time-schedule at affordable price. All that implies an aircraft size approximately between 100 and 50 passengers that is both economically sustainable by operators and able to operate in small airports and rugged ground facilities.
The regional aircraft will then integrate technologies ready for entry into service by mid-2030, incorporating viable solutions to comply certification and interact with ground infrastructure. The aircraft will include hybrid-electric propulsion supported by 100% drop-in fuels or hydrogen whether fuel cells or H2 burning for the thermal power source, to reach up to 90% lower emissions while being fully compliant with ICAO noise rules.
The HERA proposal has two overall aims:
1. Definition of the potential hybrid-electric regional aircraft concept targeting 2035 EIS including key performance, architectures, features at aircraft level and those concerning hybrid-electric propulsion and related or complementary systems enabling such new propulsion and power sources.
2. Feasibility of the real-scale demonstrators -in-flight and on-ground- to be performed after 2025 in Clean Aviation supporting the hybrid-electric validation at high TRL of the widest set of solutions useful to support the next development of an actual regional aircraft.
HERA proposal will span through the regional and up to short-range options allowed in the topic for the reason that the future regional aircraft, thought to operate by mid-2030 on, will contribute to mobility of people and goods over typical distances of less than 500 km. Four distinct but closely interacting aspects to consider.
• On one side, air-vehicles operating in those typical distances and operational environment are considered the first scheduled air transport system able to adopt in-service technologies ready for zero-emission, such as hybrid-electric propulsion, considering technology readiness and feasibility both for the air vehicle and for the infrastructures required to support their operations.
• On the other hand, any smaller typical flight distance will hardly be environmentally efficient and effective in terms of cost for an air vehicle in revenue service compared to surface transport: beyond energy consumption and trip time, it is a matter of flexibility of usage, simplicity of access to the transport means by passengers. For instance, high-speed rail on routes below 500 km requires heavy infrastructures that would be less competitive for their availability and costs by connections offered by regional air transport.
• Aerial regional connections do offer connectivity to passengers at reduced ground usage and infrastructure: regional aerial connections are a smart, safe and speedy mean to connect periphery and centre. It could be the only connection in case of natural barriers impossible or too expensive to overcome for collective and rapid surface transport means. A relevant field of application for the regional air transport are connections to/from remote zones or between islands and mainland.
• Finally, a typical regional trip requires that passengers enjoy connections easily interacting with other transport means and societal aspects. Relevant are frequency, safety, velocity and time-schedule at affordable price. All that implies an aircraft size approximately between 100 and 50 passengers that is both economically sustainable by operators and able to operate in small airports and rugged ground facilities.
The regional aircraft will then integrate technologies ready for entry into service by mid-2030, incorporating viable solutions to comply certification and interact with ground infrastructure. The aircraft will include hybrid-electric propulsion supported by 100% drop-in fuels or hydrogen whether fuel cells or H2 burning for the thermal power source, to reach up to 90% lower emissions while being fully compliant with ICAO noise rules.
The HERA proposal has two overall aims:
1. Definition of the potential hybrid-electric regional aircraft concept targeting 2035 EIS including key performance, architectures, features at aircraft level and those concerning hybrid-electric propulsion and related or complementary systems enabling such new propulsion and power sources.
2. Feasibility of the real-scale demonstrators -in-flight and on-ground- to be performed after 2025 in Clean Aviation supporting the hybrid-electric validation at high TRL of the widest set of solutions useful to support the next development of an actual regional aircraft.
Work performed in the period 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2024.
In the first months of the year the main focus was given to the finalization of Interface Control Documents in WP3 and WP4. All tasks of WP3 prepared their ICDs on time at M15, while tasks of WP4 suffered delays in the projects AMBER and HE-ART that released data three months later. Other delay on the submission of deliverables was caused by the restrictions to the data provided from both projects, available only to Leonardo, ATR and ADSES, causing the necessity to create a deliverable without data for powerplants, but only compliance matrix available to all the Consortium, and a deliverable complete with data available to the CAJU in a confidential way.
Starting from the release of technological and propulsive data from external projects, a second loop of aircraft design started for UCA and UCB where all technologies were installed on the two configurations released in the first loop. As result, the interim aircraft configurations for UCA and UCB were released in November.
In WP7, development of the digital models for Reference ATR72, UCA and UCB, and Preliminary Design Tool have been completed and issued. Activities in Tasks 7.3 and 7.4 started and went all along the year preparing two outputs documents with the description of the Flight and Ground a/c operation models.
In WP9, Eco-design and Sustainable Industrialization continued their activities finalizing suitable metrics, targets and enabling technologies integrated into a regional aircraft. Both tasks cooperate with other CA projects with periodic meetings, monitoring the activities performed and harmonizing metrics. Impact Monitoring prepared the Year 2 impact monitoring status for UCA and UCB.
Quarterly reports Q4/23 Q1 Q2 Q3 2024 have been prepared and finalized, together with the Second Progress Report, both technical and financial.
Four PPB meetings have been held, monitoring the status of activities at WP level
Two Review meetings were organized.
Ad-Hoc Review meeting in Naples in May, with HERA partners and PO, presenting the progress of technical, management and financial activities.
In October, Intermediate review meeting in Bruxelles, focusing on the UCA and UCB concept configurations defined at the second loop of aircraft design installing technologies received by other projects. The outcome of this review was a formal request from the reviewers and CAJU to re-address the activities of the project focusing on two concepts:
Ultra Efficient Regional Aircraft (UERA) EIS 2035 targeting a -30% of fuel and emissions with hybrid-electric engines batteries powered – priority 1;
Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft (HERA) EIS 2035+ targeting a -50% of fuel and emissions with hybrid-electric engines fuel cells powered hydrogen based – priority 2;
Certification activities: a familiarization with EASA where HERA presented UCA and UCB concepts and HERA Certification Organization per Panels. EASA identified impacted panels with priority 1 and 2 and HERA organized teams of specialists for each panel, to support the certification requirements identification and collection and gap analysis.
In the first months of the year the main focus was given to the finalization of Interface Control Documents in WP3 and WP4. All tasks of WP3 prepared their ICDs on time at M15, while tasks of WP4 suffered delays in the projects AMBER and HE-ART that released data three months later. Other delay on the submission of deliverables was caused by the restrictions to the data provided from both projects, available only to Leonardo, ATR and ADSES, causing the necessity to create a deliverable without data for powerplants, but only compliance matrix available to all the Consortium, and a deliverable complete with data available to the CAJU in a confidential way.
Starting from the release of technological and propulsive data from external projects, a second loop of aircraft design started for UCA and UCB where all technologies were installed on the two configurations released in the first loop. As result, the interim aircraft configurations for UCA and UCB were released in November.
In WP7, development of the digital models for Reference ATR72, UCA and UCB, and Preliminary Design Tool have been completed and issued. Activities in Tasks 7.3 and 7.4 started and went all along the year preparing two outputs documents with the description of the Flight and Ground a/c operation models.
In WP9, Eco-design and Sustainable Industrialization continued their activities finalizing suitable metrics, targets and enabling technologies integrated into a regional aircraft. Both tasks cooperate with other CA projects with periodic meetings, monitoring the activities performed and harmonizing metrics. Impact Monitoring prepared the Year 2 impact monitoring status for UCA and UCB.
Quarterly reports Q4/23 Q1 Q2 Q3 2024 have been prepared and finalized, together with the Second Progress Report, both technical and financial.
Four PPB meetings have been held, monitoring the status of activities at WP level
Two Review meetings were organized.
Ad-Hoc Review meeting in Naples in May, with HERA partners and PO, presenting the progress of technical, management and financial activities.
In October, Intermediate review meeting in Bruxelles, focusing on the UCA and UCB concept configurations defined at the second loop of aircraft design installing technologies received by other projects. The outcome of this review was a formal request from the reviewers and CAJU to re-address the activities of the project focusing on two concepts:
Ultra Efficient Regional Aircraft (UERA) EIS 2035 targeting a -30% of fuel and emissions with hybrid-electric engines batteries powered – priority 1;
Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft (HERA) EIS 2035+ targeting a -50% of fuel and emissions with hybrid-electric engines fuel cells powered hydrogen based – priority 2;
Certification activities: a familiarization with EASA where HERA presented UCA and UCB concepts and HERA Certification Organization per Panels. EASA identified impacted panels with priority 1 and 2 and HERA organized teams of specialists for each panel, to support the certification requirements identification and collection and gap analysis.
At this stage of the project it is still early to show and prove results beyond the state of the art, being HERA's ambition a challenge to be the first pursuing the hybrid-electric regional aircraft and considering the remodulation of the technical activities towards a battery based hybrid-electric Regional aircraft, supported also by full use of SAF, as a realistic and operative aircraft at a real size, having a realistic payload of interest for operators and passengers, fulfilling the certification rules, and proposing solutions to operate it.
So work is in progress.
So work is in progress.