Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- The Boeing 767 Cross Section, Part 1 November 24, 2022
- Movie Review: Devotion November 21, 2022
- China will accelerate development of its commercial aerospace sector November 21, 2022
- Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 46. eVTOL comparison with helicopter November 18, 2022
- The economics of a 787-9 and A330-900 at eight or nine abreast November 16, 2022
Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 4
By Bjorn Fehrm
July 21, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: In this Corner, we will start looking at the mass of the different components in a hybrid electric propulsion system compared with a classical turbofan propulsion.
Our propulsion project is for a regional airliner with 50 seats. The segment marked the start of the regional airliner with Bombardier’s CRJ-200 and Embraer’s ERJ-145. Today, the segment is more and more flown with Turboprops like ATR42-500.
Figure 1. Zunum aero regional airliners and a NASA boundary layer ingestion airliner. Source: Zunum aero.
Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 3
By Bjorn Fehrm
July 14, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: In the last Corner, we developed a hybrid aircraft propulsion system and looked at system efficiencies. Today, we look a bit deeper at how hybrid propulsion can be implemented on an aircraft.
What are the advantages on an aircraft level, that such a chain can have? Can aircraft level efficiencies compensate for more parts and lower propulsion efficiency of a hybrid systems?
Figure 1. Zunum aero regional airliner. Source: Zunum aero.
Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 2
By Bjorn Fehrm
July 07, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: In last Corner we could see that battery driven electric aircraft will be for the extreme short-haul.
The stored energy per kg battery is 70 times lower than for fuel. In addition the weight is constant. Fuel gets burned off during the flight.
A more useful configuration is the hybrid, which adds a combustion driven generator as energy source.
Figure 1. The Siemens electrically engined Extra 330LE aircraft. Source: Siemens.
Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 1
By Bjorn Fehrm
June 30, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: One of the areas I explored while at Paris Air Show last week was electric aircraft technology. With electric aircraft, we mean an aircraft where the propeller/fan is driven my an electrical motor.
We don’t talk about “more electrical aircraft systems” like for the Boeing 787.
One of the companies investing in technology for electric aircraft is Siemens. A Siemens-engined aerobatic aircraft, the Extra 330LE, made daily flight displays during the show.
Figure 1. The Siemens engined Extra 330LE aerobatic aircraft. Source: Siemens.
Bjorn’s Corner: Interesting aircraft at the sides of Paris Air Show 2017
By Bjorn Fehrm
June 22, 2017. ©. Leeham Co: When visiting the Paris Air Show this week, we strolled several times into the Aeronautical museum which is placed at the Le Bourget airfield. It has a fine collection of historical aircraft, helicopters, missiles and space rockets/capsules.
One of the most interesting eras in French aeronautical history, captured in the museum, is the period directly after the second World War. The French industry, destroyed by the war, started its way back. Part of the way was to learn about jet propulsion for military and civil aircraft and how to design a practical supersonic fighter aircraft for the French Air Force.
Experiments with high subsonic ramjet aircraft, the Leduc 21 in 1953. Source; Google images.
From a multitude of experiments with different aircraft types and propulsion systems, came finally the successful Dassault Mirage jets, the Caravelle jet airliner and the only Supersonic passenger jet, the Concorde. Here a video and some pictures from these exhibitions.
Bjorn’s Corner: Keeping airliners operational. Part 9.
Bjorn Fehrm
June 16, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: This week we finish our analysis how an operator would keep our tentative airline operational. By now we know the maintenance of the fleet is a critical part of running an airline.
If we miss a beat from our approved operator’s maintenance plan, our airworthiness authority can ground us.
We now finish the series with looking at how some cost-heavy parts are kept fit. We then summarize our costs for keeping our Airbus A320s flying.
Figure 1. The first modern maintenance program was formed around the Boeing 747. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: Keeping airliners operational. Part 8
By Bjorn Fehrm
June 09, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: This week we continue our analysis of the operator’s maintenance plan we made last week for our tentative airline.
Our airline is using Airbus A320s as our operational airplane. For these aircraft we have completed a maintenance plan based on the aircraft OEM’s Maintenance Planning Document (MPD) as well as other regulatory requirements.
Figure 1. The first modern maintenance program was formed around the Boeing 747. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: Keeping airliners operational. Part 7
By Bjorn Fehrm
June 02, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: We last week got an understanding of the maintenance task types that a Maintenance Planning Document (MPD) for the Airbus A320 contains.
We now use this knowledge to build an operator’s maintenance program for our A320-based airline.
Figure 1. The first modern maintenance program was formed around the Boeing 747. Source: Wikipedia.
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Bjorn’s Corner: Keeping airliners operational. Part 6
By Bjorn Fehrm
May 26, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: Last week we looked at a maintenance plan for a common aircraft, the Airbus A320. We learned how typical maintenance tasks were described in the aircraft’s Maintenance Planning Document (MPD). It’s the central document the aircraft OEM issues that describes the minimum recommended maintenance for the aircraft to keep it airworthy.
Each operator builds its own maintenance plan for the aircraft, in cooperation with its local Airworthiness authority. The MPD is then a base input for the plan. Before we go into how such a plan can look, we describe the principal MPD task types that such a plan contain.
Figure 1. The first modern maintenance program was formed around the Boeing 747. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: Keeping airliners operational. Part 5
By Bjorn Fehrm
May 19, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: Last week we described the different working groups and review committees and boards involved in defining a new airliner’s maintenance requirements.
We now continue with describing a practical maintenance task from the maintenance plan for a common aircraft, the Airbus A320.
Figure 1. The first modern maintenance program was formed around the Boeing 747. Source: Wikipedia.