NASA

Distributed Electric Propulsion

Research

E2 Fliegen
Stuttgart, Germany
Feb 27th, 2015
Mark Moore
Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Demonstrator Principal Investigator
NASA Langley Research Center
mark.d.moore@nasa.gov

Many Electric Flight Demonstrators

Have Been Developed in Recent Years
But All are Low Speed

Rui Xiang RX1E

China

Breuget Range Equation

for Electric Aircraft

E-Fan
EADS

Range is Independent
of Speed
FEATHER
JAXA

DA-36 E-Star
EADS

NASA Focus:
Show Electric Flight
Relates to Higher Speed
(While Still Achieving
High Efficiency)

Electric Cri-Cri
EADS

E-Genius
EADS

Electric Propulsion Differences

Compared to Existing Propulsion Solutions
Electric Propulsion Penalties
Energy Storage Weight (50x worse than aviation fuel)
Energy Storage Cost (Tesla 65 kWhr battery is ~$25,000)
Certification Uncertainties and Absence of Standards

Electric Propulsion Benefits

~2x efficiency of turbine engines, 3-4x efficiency of piston engines
High efficiency across >50% rpm range
6x the motor power to weight of piston engines
None air breathing - No power lapse with altitude or on hot days
Extremely Quiet
Zero vehicle emissions
10x lower energy costs
Electric Propulsion Integration Benefits
Scale independence of efficiency and power to weight
Power to weight and efficiency dont degrade at smaller sizes
Extremely compact
High reliability few moving parts
The integration benefits suggest Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP)
approaches could achieve closely coupled, multi-disciplinary benefits
across aerodynamics, propulsion, control, acoustics, and structures.

NASA Rapid Spiral Development

Research of Distributed Electric Propulsion

3m Span Small UAS

Scale

10m Span DEP Wing Only

Scale

11m Span Full General Aviation Aircraft

Scale
4

NASA Langley 1st DEP Spiral

Sub-Scale 12 Wind Tunnel Test

12 NASA Langley Wind Tunnel Testing to Establish 1st DEP Controls Aerodynamic Database

Wind Tunnel Test Unpowered CLs

NASA Langley 1st DEP Spiral

Sub-Scale VTOL DEP Flight Demonstrator

Current General Aviation Aircraft

Aerodynamic Efficiency

Lift/Drag
Ratio

Cirrus SR-22

Wing CL

General Aviation aircraft are only aerodynamically efficient at low speeds because
the wing is oversized for 61 knot stall, 2000 ft field lengths.
Aerodynamic efficiency is very important for energy constrained electric aircraft.

Increase Wing Loading to Achieve

High Aerodynamic Efficiency at High Speed
Stall Speed vs Wing Loading
(General Aviation Aircraft)

Lift/Drag Ratio vs Cruise CL

(General Aviation Aircraft)
25

20

DEP
Clmax = 5

Stall
Speed
(knots)

DEP
Aircraft
200 mph
120 mph Cruise
Cruise

15

L/D
10

0
0

200 mph
Cruise

0
0

Wing loading

(lb/ft2)

0.2

Conventional GA aircraft

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

CL

DEP GA aircraft

Highly Coupled Aero-Propulsive DEP Wing

To Achieve High Wing Loading

(18) .5m diameter propellers

distributed across wing span
with 12 kW per propeller
(220 kW total power)
9

DEP Highlift Aero-Propulsive

Analysis Results
Lift Coefficient at 61 Knots (with and without 220 kW)
No Flap (STAR-CCM+)

40 Flap, No Power (STAR-CCM+)

40 Flap with Power (STAR-CCM+)

40 Flap with Power (Effective, STAR-CCM+)

40 Flap with Power (FUN3D)

40 Flap with Power (Effective, FUN3D)

Lift Coefficient
versus
Reference Speed

2
25
20

CLmax

CL

STAR-CCM+ uses SST

(Menter) k- turbulence
model with -Re
transition model
FUN3D runs use SpalartAllmaras

Constant Power
(220 kW)

15
10
5

Unpowered

-2

4
()

10

20

40

60

80

Velocity (kts)
10

NASA Langley 2nd Spiral

Design/Analyze/Build/Test 10m DEP Wing

11

NASA Langley 2nd Spiral

DEP Wing Initial Testing

Low Speed Testing (40 mph) at Oceano Airport

Testing is Starting at NASA Armstrong Dry Lakebed
with Speeds of 70 mph

Air Bag System Dampens

Ground Vibration

12

NASA Langley 2nd Spiral

DEP Wing Initial Testing
Low Speed Taxi Testing Results

40 mph, 6400 rpm =10 deg, Full Flaps,

Upwind with 4 kt wind

Instrumentation system is 75%

complete; Air Data probe, wing
surface pressures and GPS are
not yet integrated, so we cant
account for winds on the airfield
will increase/decrease effective
airspeed (and measured lift)
With time averaging, the
vibration levels from the ground
are well managed.

~2300 lbf Lift

13

NASA Langley 2nd Spiral

DEP Wing Initial Testing
40 mph, 6400 rpm =10 deg, 40 Deg Flaps

Current Validation

Data is matching CFD extremely

well, with the vectored thrust
(effective lift) accounted.

Reference Speed (knots)

14

Cruise Aero-Propulsive Effects

Wingtip Propulsors Increase Cruise Efficiency
Lower Induced Drag
Smaller
diameter
propeller

Higher Cruise
Speed and/or
Lower tipspeed
propeller

DEP Aircraft

Conventional GA Aircraft

Aerodynamic Effects of Wingtip Mounted

Propellers and Turbines,
Luis Miranda AIAA Paper 86-1802

Inner span propellers are fixed pitch and

fold conformal against the nacelle,
and are only active at low/slow flight.

15

NASA Langley 3rd Spiral

DEP General Aviation X-Plane

Tecnam P2006T Baseline Light Twin

Retrofit LEAPTech NASA DEP Demonstrator

Modifies existing General Aviation (GA) aircraft by removing the wing

and engines, and replacing with a DEP wing system.
Research provides rapid concept to flight of DEP technologies.

Complex high voltage electric power architectures and EMI mitigation

Multi-disciplinary high aspect ratio wing aeroelastics
Robust, reliable, Redundant distributed control
PAI design tools and validation, wingtip vortex propulsion
Spread frequency acoustics

16

DEP Community Noise Benefit

Conceptual Effects of Frequency Spreading

Broadband noise

Cirrus SR-22

Conventional Single 3-Bladed Propeller Harmonics

(18) Asynchronous 5-bladed propellers that spread a
single blade passage harmonic across
30 harmonics instead of 1 that blends into the
broadband as white noise

17

3rd Spiral DEP Flight Demonstrator

System Level Impacts
Primary Objective
Goal: 5x Lower Energy Use (Comparative to Retrofit GA Baseline @ High
Speed Cruise)
Minimum Threshold: 3.5x Lower Energy Use

Derivative Objectives
30% Lower Total Operating Cost (Comparative to Retrofit GA Baseline)
Zero In-flight Carbon Emissions

Secondary Objectives

15 dB Lower community noise (with even lower true community annoyance) .

Flight control redundancy, robustness, reliability, with improved ride quality.
Certification basis for DEP technologies.
Analytical scaling study to provide a basis for follow-on ARMD Hybrid-Electric
Propulsion (HEP) commuter and regional turbo-prop research investments.

Primary Objective Basis

Electric only conversion of the baseline aircraft results in a 2.9 - 3.3x efficiency
increase (i.e. 28% to 92% motor efficiency).
Integrating DEP results in an additional 1.2 - 1.5x efficiency increase.
Minimum threshold is 2.9 x 1.2 = 3.5, with goal of 3.3 x 1.5 = 5.0 goal.

18

Battery Specific Energy Sensitivity

200 Whr/kg batteries
with a 200 mile range
with reserves

Cirrus SR-22
with Retrofit Electric Propulsion
11,300 lb

400 Whr/kg battery energy density is critical to

enable early adopter electric propulsion markets

Cirrus SR-22
General Aviation Aircraft
3400 lb
19

Early Market Electric Propulsion Market

Thin-Haul Commuter Mission
Thin-Haul Commuters provide Essential Air Services to small communities with thin
passenger trip distributions. New business models and technologies are developing across
many industries to capture long-tail markets instead of focusing only on dominant markets.

(see The Long-Tail:

Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More)

Example of dominant (green) and long-tail (yellow) market distribution

(with each being 50% of the total market share)
14000

Cape Air Commuter Trip Range Distribution

12000
10000
8000

Number
of 6000
Trips

No Trips
with Range
> 220 nm

All Cape Air Operations

11.7M Seat Miles
~100 Cessna 402 9 passenger
Aircraft

4000
2000

20
23
27
34
39
40
48
59
66
79
82
90
97
104
110
129
135
139
159
163
168
169
172
183
210

Trip Range (nm)

Why Use Spiral Development?

EADS has recently funded 4 electric propulsion integration flight demonstrators
To quickly become familiar with this new propulsion technology area through
hardware demonstrations that offer a solid engineering experience.
To quickly explore alternate integration approaches.
Companies have yet to flight demonstrated distributed electric architectures.
For each research effort spiral development was utilized to provide
Experimentation that provides TRL advancement across vehicle sizes due to the
scale-free nature of electric technologies
Approach agility due to rapidly accelerating technologies
Provide early lessons learned with minimal consequence
Greater control of discrete costs and risks
Establish an early certification basis
Fail early, Often

21

Questions?

NASA
Convergent Aeronautic Solutions (CAS)
Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP)
Tecnam P2006T Based X-Plane

Effect of Propeller Radius to Chord Ratio

Spanwise Lift Distribution with Propellers

22

Lift

Drag

Thrust

CL

Effective CL

CD

3,377 lb

524 lb

853 lb

4.86

4.86

0.778

3,471 lb

565 lb

853 lb

4.99

5.04

0.838

3,535 lb

603 lb

853 lb

5.09

5.17

0.895

3,589 lb

626 lb

853 lb

5.16

5.27

0.929

3,617 lb

641 lb

853 lb

5.20

5.33

0.952

3,645 lb

670 lb

853 lb

5.24

5.42

0.995

3,648 lb

676 lb

853 lb

5.25

5.44

1.003

10

3,662 lb

698 lb

853 lb

5.27

5.48

1.037

DEP Operating Cost Benefit

While Achieving Zero In-Flight Emissions
$/Hr
500

General Aviation
Total Operating Cost Comparison

450

400

Energy

350

Insurance/Taxes

300

Personnel

250

Pilot

200

Acquisition

150

Facilities

100

Maintenance

50
0

SOA Baseline
6000

5000

DEP Concept

Single Aisle Commercial

Direct Operating Cost Comparison
Energy

4000

Insurance
3000

Electricity based aircraft energy provide a

decrease in price variability and cost risk
as well as a true renewable energy path
(100LL fuel is ~2x higher cost than auto gas)

Flight Crew
Financing

2000

Maintenance

1000

SOA Baseline

DEP Concept

24

System Impact of Applying

Distributed Electric Propulsion
Make Aircraft More Efficient, with Improved Emissions, Noise, Ride Quality, Safety, and Operating Costs
Typically achieving an improvement in one aircraft capability requires taking penalties in other areas.
By leveraging this new integration technology, Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), dramatic
improvements are possible across these areas, while only absorbing penalties in range and weight
(which penalties will become significantly reduced as battery specific energy improves).
Applying DEP to a General Aviation aircraft enables these improvements, while limiting the range to
200 miles and increasing the vehicle weight from 2700 lb to 3400 lb.
Aerodynamic Efficiency: Lift/Drag ratio improved from 11 to 17
Propulsive Efficiency: Energy conversion efficiency from 24% to 83%
Emissions: Life cycle GHG decreased by 5x using U.S. average electricity
Community Noise: Certification noise level from 85 to <65 dB
Safety: Highly redundant propulsion system
Ride Quality: Wing loading increased by >2.5x
Operating Costs: Energy costs decrease from 45% to 12% of TOC

January 1315, 2015

NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate 2015 LEARN/Seedling Technical Seminar

25

DEP Integration
Application Across Aviation Markets
General Aviation SOA provides large benefit advantages
for early market success with emerging electric
propulsion technology adoption to provide
more rapid tech acceleration
for larger scale aircraft.

Single Aisle: Boeing 737

Gross Weight ~150,000 lb
L/D cruise ~ 18
Wing loading 111 lb/ft2

Regional Jets: Bombardier Q300

Gross Weight ~ 43,000 lb
L/D cruise ~ 16
Wing loading 71 lb/ft2
Commuters: Cessna Grand Caravan
Gross Weight ~ 6200 lb
L/D cruise ~ 10
Wing loading 22 lb/ft2
Electric propulsion integration benefits
General Aviation: Cirrus SR-22
Gross Weight ~ 3400 lb
L/D cruise ~ 11
Wing loading = 25 lb/ft2

decrease with larger aircraft due to the far

superior baseline metrics, but still offer
compelling benefits across efficiency,
emissions, noise, and operating costs. 26