Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens join forces to produce a hybrid electric aircraft

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle, contributing writer

Airbus, Siemens, and Rolls-Royce are teaming up to develop a hybrid passenger plane that would use a single electric turbofan along with three conventional jet engines, which would make it the first hybrid plane available to commercial airlines. These three top companies in the motor vehicle world hope to have a functioning flying prototype of the E-Fan X project’s demonstrator plane by 2020.

Image source: Airbus.

The idea produced by these three tech giants is to combine their specific specialties in the field to craft an aircraft that could potentially eliminate pollution caused by aircrafts. This E-Fan X design is based on the 100-passenger BAe 146 four-engine regional jet, but the hybrid version would generate electric power through a turbine inside the plane’s chassis, thus replacing one aviation fuel-powered turbofan engine with an electric one. The power generated by the fuel turbine would be transferred to the single electric turbofan engine, causing the fan blades to rotate rapidly.

Siemens AG is tasked with making the electric motor and its power electronics. This motor will be designed to deliver the two megawatts of energy needed to power the AE 3007 fan and nacelle. Hopefully, this electric motor will keep up with the other three fuel-powered turbofans so that this team-up will be able to swap out more gas-powered engines for electric motors in future designs.

The turbo-shaft AE 2100 gas turbine and 2-MW electric generator will be crafted by Rolls-Royce. It will also be responsible for the generator’s power electronics and helping airbus with the fan adaption for Siemens’ electric turbine.

The job of integrating the motors and engines with flight controls falls on Airbus. Airbus will be responsible for tying all of these systems together, along with the cockpit’s human-machine interface (HMI), the 2-MW energy storage, the hybrid electric propulsion systems (HEPS), and power distribution center.

“The E-Fan X is an important next step in our goal of making electric flight a reality in the foreseeable future,” said Paul Eremenko, Airbus’ chief technology officer.

This fusion of experienced tech-giant companies to reduce aviation pollution is not going to be the only new contender joining this high-flying tech-war race, though they may be the most prominent. Boeing, BlueJet, EasyJet, and Wright Electric only name a few of the additional companies that have vowed to manufacture purely electric aircrafts. Their estimations have them set back a few years after Airbus’ predictions, but the capability of success seems very apparent. With all of these elite aircraft manufacturers fighting for the same goal, it’s likely that a fully functional hybrid, or even fully electric plane, will be created within the next decade. Climate change researchers have their fingers crossed.