Comparing eVTOL Aircraft Configurations for Varying Payloads and Range
2022-26-1151
05/26/2022
- Event
- Content
- The question of finding an optimal electric Vertical Take off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft configuration for different payloads and ranges is non-trivial from an academic and industry perspective for the emerging Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market. In this paper, different eVTOL configurations (Lift+cruise, tilt-rotor, tilt-wing) are sized for varying payloads (300-700kg) and ranges (50-150km). The different concepts are then compared through parameters such as energy consumption, noise, cost of the aircraft and cost per seat-km, in the context of Indian market. Although some studies have compared different configurations, the sizing of the aircraft is typically not performed rigorously. In this paper, we aim to arrive at more optimally sized aircrafts based on the mission requirements by following a common design algorithm. The methodology for sizing the aircraft starts with an initial guess for maximum takeoff weight, based on similar aircraft. Subsequently, other elements of the aircraft including the wing, tail and motors are then sized. One of the important constraints for the design is that the maximum dimension is restricted to 15 metres in order to conform to existing helipad dimensions. The motors are sized for nominal hover, cruise and climb power requirement without accounting for failure scenarios. Finally, depending on the energy requirement for a specific mission, the battery is resized, providing the initial weight for the next round of design sizing. The energy consumption is calculated for different missions by varying only the time of cruise flight. The cost of the aircraft is estimated using a modified Eastlake model and cost per seat-km is estimated for Mumbai region taking into account the current prices for pilots, hangar rent and estimated maintenance costs. The results are presented to show the optimal eVTOL configurations for different combinations of payload and range.
- Citation
- Pandurangi, P., Tumuluru, N., and Nayak , V., "Comparing eVTOL Aircraft Configurations for Varying Payloads and Range," SAE Technical Paper 2022-26-1151, 2022, .