Large Passenger Aircraft: what are the challenges?
Large Passenger Aircraft are generally considered to be aircraft carrying over roughly 100 passengers or an equivalent cargo loading across short, medium and long haul distances. This includes today’s “narrow-body” aircraft which are usually designed and configured around the median of 150 seats, twin-aisle aircraft for medium (200–300 seats) and large capacity (roughly 300–400 seats) for both mid and long range trips; and “very large” aircraft with two passenger decks and generally over 400 seats.
It should be noted that the largest (sometimes stretched models) of regional aircraft might carry the same amount of passengers as the shortened versions of airliners (the Airbus A318, the shortest aircraft in the A320 family, has approximately 100 seats). One point of difference though is the fact that regional aircraft are mainly intended for short haul flights, whereas large passenger aircraft can be for short, medium, and long-haul missions.
The challenges? From a market perspective, there is fierce competition – not just between the main manufacturers and global leaders (such as Airbus and Boeing) but from what are sometimes misleadingly referred to as "emerging markets" – many of which in fact are not "emerging" but are often nations with well-established aerospace industries. Russia and China, for example, have the ability to produce aircraft that are capable of capturing market-share (especially through access to home markets) – albeit with products that technologically are comparable to the legacy level of the global leaders, using conventional configurations. Nevertheless, these aircraft can be produced and supplied at very competitive cost levels and the competition for technology and innovation is certain to increase.
The challenge for Clean Sky 2's Large Passenger Aircraft programme is to further mature technologies developed in Clean Sky, such as the integration of innovative propulsion systems, and to validate other key technologies such as hybrid laminar flow for the wing and empennages (the aircraft tail), as well as an all-new next generation fuselage cabin and cockpit-navigation.
The Large Passenger Aircraft goal is both high-TRL demonstration of the best technologies and development of disruptive technologies for “2035+” applications to accomplish the combined key ACARE goals with respect to the environment, fulfilling future market needs and improving the competitiveness of Europe's aeronautical industries.
Read more about the LPA IADP and the CS2 Programme here
Overview
The plan for the Large Passenger Aircraft Programme is to develop these new technologies by streaming them into three parallel Platforms:
Platform 1: Advanced Engine and Aircraft Configurations
- A major focus in Platform 1 is to provide the development environment for the integration of the most fuel-efficient propulsion concepts into compatible airframe configurations and concepts targeting next generation short and medium range aircraft. The considered propulsion concepts feature the novel open rotor engine architecture, the advanced Ultra-High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) turbofan as well as hybrid [and/or distributed] propulsion concepts, exploring the potential of Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI). In parallel with these new engine and system architectures, studies for Non-Propulsive Energy (NPE) generation will be performed.
- Another major focus in Platform 1 is the development of integrated flow control techniques for advanced aircraft performance for the whole operational envelope. In this area, the key technologies include the Hybrid Laminar Flow Control technology (HLFC) for skin-friction drag reduction and fluidic actuators for high-lift performance improvement. Finally, the opportunities and limit of scaled flight-testing will be investigated and include the “Radical Configuration Scaled Flight Test Demonstrator” that will demonstrate a radical configuration for an Advanced Small/Medium Range (SMR) airliner for the 2035 timeframe. The configuration was selected from a design space exploration and features distributed propulsion.
- The overall set-up of Platform 1 aims to ensure that all technologies being developed and demonstrated are following consistent target aircraft configurations and concepts, which means that the compatibility between airframe and propulsion technologies is assured.
- The validation will be performed through the most appropriate means (e.g. flight test, ground test, wind tunnel test or simulation) depending on the maturity level and TRL targeted after integration of a given technology at aircraft level.
Platform 2: Innovative Physical Integration Cabin – System – Structure
Platform 2 aims to develop, mature, and demonstrate an entirely new, advanced fuselage structural concept in alignment towards next-generation cabin-cargo architectures, including relevant aircraft systems. To account for the substantially different test requirements, the large-scale demonstration will be based on two individual major demonstrators:
- A multifunctional fuselage demonstrator will be developed, manufactured and tested with focus on industrial manufacturing including pre-installation and modularisation. Within the “new” Fuselage, Cabin/Cargo and System demonstrator modules/components will be integrated to validate Multi ATA technologies and their industrial processes.
- A Cabin and Cargo demonstrator will be dedicated to integrating and testing the next generation of large passenger aircraft cabin and cargo. A number of smaller test rigs and component demonstrators are part of the programme. The target is to accomplish technology readiness level up to 6, for a certain number of technologies.
The demonstrators are supported by a work-package on cross-functional activities dealing with development of multifunctional technologies for elementary, automated structural testing and prediction tools for structural components under applied loads.
Platform 3: Next Generation Aircraft Systems, Cockpit and Avionics
Platform 3 will develop and demonstrate a next generation cockpit and navigation suite, addressing large aircraft, regional aircraft and business jets. Based on the results of a number of projects which are currently ongoing, Platform 3 should allow functions and enabling technologies which are emerging from individual developments, aiming for aircraft safety enhancement and robust operations, to be integrated and validated into enhanced cockpits and new disruptive cockpit concepts in several demonstrators.
- The Regional Aircraft and Business Jet aircraft enhanced cockpit demonstrators will integrate functions targeting flight crew workload reduction, mainly through advanced pilot’s interfaces such as innovative pilot’s displays and multimodal devices, pilot monitoring system, as well as enhanced navigation means and support to aircraft status management, enabled by appropriate optimised avionics technology.
- The large aircraft disruptive cockpit operations concept demonstrator will implement a human-centric approach to operate the aircraft and integrate innovative functions and human-machine interface technologies to reduce crew workload, improve situational awareness and support increased navigation functions availability, robustness and autonomy, in line with relevant SESAR Joint Undertaking functions and technologies.
Corresponding functions will be developed as part of LPA Platform 3, as well as the Systems ITD and in collaboration with other national R&T frameworks. Since the majority of Platform 3 demonstrators are ground-based demonstrators, selected functions and technologies will be brought to flight test demonstration when justified, either on large aircraft or on business jet.
In addition, the development of value-driven end-to-end maintenance service architectures and applications suite has been defined and demonstrated, enabling the replacement of scheduled maintenance by efficient value driven on-condition maintenance.
Demonstrators
The three platforms in the Large Passenger Aircraft Programme include a range of major demonstrators that will assess the performance and maturity of the technologies at stake through large-scale demonstrations including flight testing, ground tests or validation in wind tunnels.
Platform 1: Advanced Engine and Aircraft Configurations
- UltraFan (VHBR) flight test demonstration
- UBHR short range integration
- Non-propulsive energy optimisation for large aircraft
- Active vibration and noise control
- HLFC on tails and wing
- Novel aircraft and scaled flight test demonstration
- Advanced rear end
Platform 2: Innovative Physical Integration Cabin – System – Structure
- Multi-Functional Fuselage Demonstrator
- Next Generation Cabin and Cargo Functions
Platform 3: Next Generation Aircraft Systems, Cockpit and Avionics
- Disruptive Cockpit Large Aircraft
- Regional Active Cockpit
- BizJet Enhanced Cockpit Concept
Read more about CS2 Demonstrators here
Latest Progress and Results
The Large Passenger Aircraft IADP is focusing on large-scale demonstration of technologies integrated at aircraft level on three distinct ‘Platforms’:
- In Platform 1, good progress was made in 2020 on the N+1 engine nacelle design and the technology bricks for the long range aircraft type. The design for the integration systems of Ultra High Propulsive Efficiency (UHPE) engines on short and medium range (SMR) aircraft is nearing completion. Concerning airframe drag reduction technologies, good progress has been made on hybrid laminar flow technologies for airfoils with a large scale horizontal tail plane demonstrator tested in 2020, and TRL3 was passed for HLFC applications on wings. For radical aircraft configuration studies, significant progress was made to increase confidence and to de-risk an advanced SMR configuration for the 2035 timeframe. A distributed electric propulsion architecture has thus been selected for the scaled flight test demonstrator.
- In Platform 2, the first demonstrator parts of the multi-functional fuselage demonstrator have been produced in manufacturing trials to prepare the production process for the final demonstrator parts. The latest generation of the platform concept demonstrator was equipped with cabin and systems to show evidence for zero customisation at airframe level as an industrial approach. Cargo fire tests on the environmentally friendly fire protection demonstrator were conducted in a real burn chamber.
- In Platform 3, activities on the large aircraft disruptive cockpit demonstrator moved forward, in particular for cockpit avionic functions and technology development, LIDAR flight test installation and icing flight tests campaign. For the regional aircraft active cockpit demonstrator, progress was made on the key technologies aimed at reducing pilot workload. With regard to the business jet, progress was made on activities such as multimodality and the refinement of pilot-state monitoring algorithm detection.
Read more in the latest CS2 Annual Activity Report (3.28 MB) "pdf" and Highlight Report
CS2 Members in Large Passenger Aircraft IADP
Leaders LPA IADP
- Airbus Defence and Space SA (ex EADS-CASA)
- Airbus SAS
- Dassault Aviation SA
- Deutsches Zentrum Fuer Luft - Und Raumfahrt Ev - DLR
- Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V
- Liebherr Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH
- Rolls Royce Plc
- SAAB AKTIEBOLAG
- Safran SA
- Thales AVS France SAS (ex Thales Avionics SAS)
Core Partners LPA IADP
- Aernnova Aerospace Sau
- Bae Systems Ltd.
- Brightloop Sas
- Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali Scpa
- Coventry University
- Diehl Aviation Laupheim Gmbh
- Erneo
- Fokker Aerostructures B.V.
- Fokker Technologies Holding B.V.
- Fundacion Para La Investigacion, Desarrollo Y Aplicacion De Materiales Compuestos
- Ge Avio Srl
- Gkn Aerospace Sweden Ab
- Gmvis Skysoft Sa
- Gmvis Skysoft Sa (Gmv)
- Honeywell International Sro
- Office National D'etudes Et De Recherches Aerospatiales - Onera
- Safran Aerotechnics Sas (Ex Zodiac Aerotechnics Sas)
- Safran Cabin Catering B.V. (Ex Zodiac Aircatering Equipment Europe BV)
- Societe Nationale De Construction Aerospatiale Sonaca Sa
- Stichting Nationaal Lucht- En Ruimtevaartlaboratorium (NLR)
- Technische Universiteit Delft
- Triagnosys Gmbh
- Zodiac Aero Electric Sas
For full details on the list of participants (including their participating affiliates), see here (941.16 KB) "pdf"
Clean Sky 2 GAPs in Large Passenger Aircraft IADP
In total, 133 Grant Agreements for Partners were awarded in the Large Passenger Aircraft IADP, representing a total EU contribution of €152.83m.
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