Page 57 - AAA SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2016 Online Magazine

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conditions. “One condition was that it must Why the Environment Needs
be a very robust machine in the category of Electric Drives
fully certified aircraft that can carry as much “We are convinced that electric drives will
weight as possible,” Anton explained. The become irreplaceable in aviation,” says
solution was a production aircraft equipped Anton. Driving his optimism is the fact that
with a tubular lattice frame designed to the European Commission wants to lower
make it easier to install components and total CO 2 emissions in aviation by up to 75
modify them at any time. per cent by 2050. The only way to achieve
this in the face of steadily increasing air
Powerful Enough for Regional traffic volume is through the implementation
Flights? of new technologies.
Extra Aircraft is not the only partner The solution is the electrification of
Siemens is working with in its quest to aviation. “Hybrid-electric drive systems
electrify aviation. It is collaborating with drive propellers or ducted fans electrically
other medium-sized manufacturers on pilot and generate power with gas turbines
projects to raise awareness of the practical that can be optimized for constant travel
benefits of electrical drive systems. In performance,” explains Anton. Additional
April 2016, for example, a two-seater battery power can be used for ascent.
training aircraft called the Magnus eFusion This concept separates energy
successfully took its maiden flight. The plane conversion from thrust generation, which
will be used to explore how battery systems yields new possibilities for aircraft
can be adapted to serve the needs of electric development because the central energy
aviation. In addition, Siemens and Airbus are conversion system and the distributed
pursuing a much larger-scale cooperation electrical thrust generation system can be
project: The two companies want to prove optimized individually. The savings potential
the technical feasibility of hybrid-electric of such systems is enormous: Siemens
drive systems for regional flights for up to experts expect that it will be possible to
100 passengers by reduce fuel consumption and pollutant
2020 – a development that will require emissions by up to 50 per cent.
power classes as high as 10 megawatts. Furthermore, electric aircraft are much
quieter than conventional aircraft. This
will benefit not only those who live near
airports but also flight operators, because
quiet drive systems may make it possible
to offer evening and night flights that are
now banned for noise reasons. This could
significantly increase aircraft capacity
utilization and therefore the profitability of
business models.
The Siemens experts want to
continuously improve the power density,
efficiency and reliability of their components.
But their motivation goes beyond just
optimization; they always visualize the
maiden flight of their drive system on the
horizon. German aviation pioneer Otto
Lilienthal described this aspiration as
follows: “It means little to invent an aircraft,
more to build one, but flying one means
everything.”

(Ulrich Kreutzer is Communication
Consultant eAircraft, Corporate Technology,
Siemens AG)
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