Title: Reducing the fuel consumption of light aircraft

Authors: John Olsen

Addresses: The School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

Abstract: Given that significant increases have been made in the gravimetric specific power of permanent magnet synchronous machines, we reassess the effect that parallel, series and power/split hybrid topologies have on reducing the fuel consumption of light aircraft. Given the difficulties in preventing the weight of a hybrid-powered aircraft from exceeding the weight of the retrofitted conventionally powered aircraft, an analysis is conducted to assess the effects of weight increase over powertrain efficiency increase on fuel consumption. Finally, we examine two new combustion technologies to assess their potential for reducing fuel consumption and their practicality for light aircraft.

Keywords: hybrid; power-split; fuel consumption reduction; turbulent jet ignition; spark assisted compression ignition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSA.2022.124484

International Journal of Sustainable Aviation, 2022 Vol.8 No.3, pp.198 - 218

Received: 22 Sep 2021
Accepted: 25 Feb 2022

Published online: 27 Jul 2022 *

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