A Hybrid Energy Storage Sizing for a Vertical Take-off and Landing Electric Aircraft

The energy storage sizing procedure for an all-electric aircraft, characterised by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), is presented in the paper. In order to define the energy consumption, the propulsion system model has been developed and simulated, referring to a specific configuration of VOLT obtained by the transformation of a very light twin-propeller aircraft named Tecnam P2012 T. Specifically, a flight mission-oriented to air city taxing has been considered. The simulation results highlight the presence of significant peak power during take-off and landing. At the aim of optimising the weight and the volume of the energy storage systems (ESSs), considered a critical issue in all-electric aircraft (AEA), the sizing of electrochemical and Supercapacitors (SCs) hybrid ESS configurations have been investigated. In particular, the use of SCs is devoted to the smooth peak power demand of VTOL-AEA. A comparison between the simulation results of an electrochemical battery and hybrid ESSs, designed on the test mission of Tecnam P2012 T power demand, has been developed and presented.