The potential for reductions in emissions, energy costs, and maintenance costs has led to interest in battery-electric propulsion for small aircraft. However, the low specific energy of current batteries considerably limits aircraft range, payload, and speed performance. Additionally, recharge power limitations impede the ability to recharge quickly between flights, restricting the feasibility of electric aircraft for scheduled operations. This paper considers the problem of choosing the cruise airspeeds of different flights within a schedule to maximize the energy feasibility of the schedule, subject to the constraints of a fixed timeline of departures. Two types of schedules are considered: one in which every route is the same and repeating, and one in which every route may be unique. This optimization problem results in airspeeds that balance energy expended during cruise and energy replenished during recharge. A greedy algorithm is presented to determine these optimal airspeeds for schedules with unique routes.
Optimal Airspeeds for Scheduled Electric Aircraft Operations
Journal of Aircraft ; 56 , 2 ; 545-555
2018-12-07
11 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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