A Methodology for Preliminary Performance Estimation of a Hybrid-Electric Tilt-Wing Aircraft for Emergency Medical Services

This paper aims to provide a simple methodology to preliminary size a hybrid-electric propulsion system for large scale piloted, optionally piloted or unmanned tilt-wing aircraft. In this work, the author refers to three mission profile representative of an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) operation and estimate the performance of the aircraft along the mission. Thus, based on some assumptions on battery technology, architecture of the hybrid system and mission safety requirements, a methodology for preliminary performance estimation is described and results for a baseline architecture are presented. Based on present and near future battery technology (in terms of charge/discharge rates and energy density), the present study shows how safety requirements can strongly affect the overall size of the power-plant system and impact the feasibility of hybrid-electric technology in aeronautical applications.