Aircraft with electric battery, in particular hybrid aircraft

Data di pubblicazione

15-12-2016

Codice

DAER.16.067.A

Data di priorità

14-11-2016

Fase

International PCT patent application

Titolare

Politecnico di Milano

Dipartimento

Department of Aerospace Science and Technology

Autori

Andrea Bernasconi, Fabio Biondani, Luca Capoferri, Alberto Favier, Federico Gualdoni, Carlo Riboldi, Lorenzo Trainelli, Carmen Velarde Lopez de Ayala

Descrizione

A research group of professors and students of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technologies at Politecnico di Milano designed a hybrid-electric aircraft which employs structural batteries. Structural batteries are innovative composite multi-functional materials able to bear mechanical loads and simultaneously store electrical energy. These materials constitute the aircraft fuselage and wing skins. Two different configurations of structural batteries are applied: - standard layered composite configuration; - sandwich configuration, where the core is made of a honeycomb structure to increase the strength and simultaneously retard the propagation of a possible fire. The standard configuration is applied in the lower skin of the wings, whereas the sandwich configuration is used in the wing leading edge and in the fuselage. A Li-ion battery pack is installed in the aircraft with the main purpose of providing a supplementary source of energy. The hybrid-electric solution allows to increase the aircraft range, in particular exploiting the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to power the aircraft during the cruise phase. The ICE can be also used to recharge the battery in flight, decreasing the recharge time on ground.

Campo di applicazione

The invention can be applied in every aircraft that exploits electric energy for propulsion, be it pure electric or hybrid-electric.

Vantaggi

The advantages of the invention compared to a hybrid-electric aircraft which does not feature structural batteries are: - since aircraft airframe is able to store electric energy, a part of the Li-ion battery pack can be removed, allowing a weight reduction at equal range performance; - structural batteries do not represent a useless weight once they are discharged, since they still contribute to bear mechanical loads.

Stadio di sviluppo

Conceptual design

Contatto

licensing.tto@polimi.it