The completion this month of a 1MW aircraft systems validation rig (ASVR) clears the way for the start, by year-end, of development work for a more-electric aircraft under the Power Optimised Aircraft project, a European Union Fifth Framework research programme.
The ASVR’s subsystems are undergoing tests and the project aims to reduce non-propulsive power consumption by 25% in certain flight phases and cut fuel consumption by 5%. More-electric aircraft are expected to have modular electrical architectures with advanced thermal management systems and highly energy-efficient electronics that use ceramics.
“The ASVR incorporates half of the target [next generation] aircraft. It’s a copper bird, not an iron bird, it’s a representation of the electrical aircaft,” says Safran subsidiary Hispano-Suiza’s vice-president research and technology and strategy, Paul Kremer.
Using two 500kW DC motors the ASVR represents half the electrical systems and about half the power expected to be required by the more-electric next generation aircraft that will fly from 2020.
Alongside Hispano-Suiza, the ASVR’s 11 partners include Snecma’s Technofan unit and Zodiac subsidiary ECE-Intertechnique of France, Germany’s University of Kassal and aerospace company Liebherr and Spanish engineering consultancy Sener.
Source: Flight International
