Model Airplanes

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• Thomas James

  Article source: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/beta-technologies-races-to-develop-electric-aviation/Content?oid=21874381

Siemens, whose highly efficient motor propelled an Extra 330LE aerobatic electric plane in 2016, is continuing its ascent in the electrified aircraft market. Armed with a digital twin model of the electric propulsion unit (EPU) and flight test data, the company set out to design a powertrain with even better performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness. Engineering.com connected with Teri Hamlin, a retired Air Force colonel who now serves as vice president of Siemens eAircraft division, and Siemens engineer Olaf Otto, who gave us the inside scoop on the digital twin design strategy that the company used to refine the EPU. Fasten your seat belts.

Electric and Hybrid Aircraft

According to the U.S. EPA, transportation, including air travel, accounts for more than one-fourth of all human-generated greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects the demand for passenger air travel to double by the year 2035. In order to reduce CO₂and other pollutants, the transportation industry needs to move toward hybrid and fully electric vehicles. 

Electric aircraft are transitioning from the experimental stage to market entry, with electric propulsion units currently ranging from 45kW to 260kW (60hp to 350hp)—adequate for small personal aircraft. By 2025, energy storage capacity will be more than sufficient for medium-range battery-operated commuter planes. Siemens predicts that electric propulsion will become the standard for all segments of the aviation industry by 2050. 

Electric Propulsion Unit (EPU)

Electric propulsion conjures up images of battery-powered vehicles, but that’s just one option and it’s currently limited to small aircraft.

Article source: https://www.engineering.com/DesignSoftware/DesignSoftwareArticles/ArticleID/17821/Siemens-Electric-Aircraft-Propulsion-Unit-Inside-the-Digital-Twin-Design-Strategy.aspx

Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s first Airbus A380 superjumbo passenger plane touches down at Changi Airport in Singapore, on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. In addition to being the first to operate the A380 Singapore Airlines this year became the first carrier to retire an A380 from service, after an unusually short 10.5 years in service because the big plane proved to be too difficult to fill up and earn profits operating it. Jonathan Drake/Bloomberg News

Bigger isn’t always better. And Airbus’ giant A380 double-decker airplane capable of flying 8,000 nautical miles with 555 passengers in a conventional three-class configuration or a whoping 853 in an all-one-class configuration that is almost too bizarre to contemplate, is a 277 ton primary example of that maxim.

Next week will mark the 11^th anniversary of the A380’s celebrated entry into commercial service. But there have been only about 230 of them delivered to airlines in all that time. And it only has orders on the books for another 100 or so. That compares quite poorly to the 875 such planes that Airbus officials in the early 2000s were predicting they’d sell by the end of 2019

And now the news is getting worse. The first four A380s delivered to airlines already have been retired and the first two of them, including the very first one to ever fly in passenger service for Singapore Airlines, have been parked at a remote airport in the Pyrenees Mountains. That’s where they’ll be gradually stripped of their parts and engines so

Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielreed/2018/10/16/with-the-first-a380-on-the-scrapheap-after-just-11-years-airbus-bad-bet-can-now-is-obvious/