Conceptual design of hybrid electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with a liquid hydrogen fuel tank

Abstract

Urban air mobility (UAM) has recently attracted lots of attention as a solution to urban centralization and global warming. Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) is a concept that emerges as one of the promising and clean technologies for UAM. There are two difficult challenges for eVTOL aircraft to solve. One is how to improve the weight efficiency of aircraft, and the other is how to complete long-range missions for UAM's flight scenarios. To approach these challenges, we propose a consolidated concept design of battery-fuel cell hybrid tiltrotor aircraft with a liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel tank. The efficiency of a battery-fuel cell hybrid powertrain system on the designed eVTOL aircraft is compared to that of a battery-only powertrain system. This paper shows how much payload can increase and the flight scenario can be improved by hybridizing the battery and fuel cell and presenting a detailed concept of a cryogenic storage tank for LH2.