Design of the aerodynamic properties of an electric aircraft
Research Project, 2021 – 2022

When designing aircrafts weight is everything. Existing batteries cannot store enough energy per kilogram. Hence, long-distance electrically propelled aircraft must – at least today – be a hybrid meaning that the aircraft would need to carry both an electric engine and a convectional turboprop. For small, short-haul planes, however, the batteries will be enough. Harbour Air – an airline – has announced that it will fit its fleet of around 40 seaplanes with magniX’s motors (an manufacturer of electric motors for aircraft). They will initially convert an aircraft for six passangers, but their largest plane has three times larger capacity. Ampaire, a firm in Hawthorne, California, says that later this year they will probably start a similar collaboration with Mokulele Airlines, a Hawaiian company. Mokulele’s planes uses – unlike Harbour’s seaplanes – will
use conventional landbased runways. Fitting existing aircrafts with electric engines is of course the easist way to get an electricity-driven aircraft. But it may not be the best. Many airline firms that
plan to go electric start from scratch, using airframes made from carbon plastics and sometime also specially designed engines.

Participants

Lars Davidson (contact)

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Fluid Dynamics

Anders Forslund

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Huadong Yao

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Fluid Dynamics

Funding

AoA Transport

Funding Chalmers participation during 2021–2022

AoA Energy

Funding Chalmers participation during 2021–2022

Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure

Transport

Areas of Advance

Energy

Areas of Advance

Publications

More information

Latest update

2022-11-01