Analysis of Parallel Architecture Hybrid Electric Propulsion for Representative Types of Business Aviation Aircraft

This paper compares the application of a parallel architecture hybrid-electric propulsion (HEP) scheme to three business jet aircraft classes - very light, super-midsize, and large cabin aircraft, with the aim of determining the most appropriate class of aircraft for near-term hybridization. Amongst the parameters examined are overall range, fuel and battery energy consumption, and battery and volume requirements. Based on the comparison of the Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100, Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300 and Gulfstream GVII-G500 as representative types for their respective class, it was found that the large cabin class G500 was most suitable to accommodate a 25% power hybridized parallel HEP architecture. This was due to a markedly lower range loss of 34% for a 5% energy hybridization with 1,250 Wh/kg batteries compared to the 40% of the very light jet class and 36% of the super-midsize class. Furthermore, it was found that larger aircraft were less sensitive to battery energy density, due to higher fuel fractions. As a result, large-cabin aircraft can utilize batteries of 800 Wh/kg compared to VLJs, which require 1,250 Wh/kg batteries to meet the aircraft class range bounds. It is recommended that large-cabin aircraft are the target class of business aircraft for HEP integration.