The aircraft design process is a complex task that requires the collaboration of disciplinary experts from various fields. In practice, this complexity requires a large investment in setting up communication interfaces for the exchange of disciplinary data, and serious misinterpretations are not uncommon. To increase the efficiency and robustness of data exchange, a common language is essential. As such, the Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema (CPACS) serves as a central data model, which currently includes detailed parametrizations of aircraft geometry and analysis results from traditional disciplines (e.g., aerodynamics, structure, etc.). However, with the recent interest in alternative propulsion and complex on-board system architectures, CPACS is proving to be too limited to meet the needs of the various disciplinary system experts. The particular challenge here is to enable different views on the same systems, i.e., a functional/logical as well as a geometric/physical representation, without violating the principle of unambiguous data. Therefore, this paper proposes an extension of CPACS which introduces an explicit system definition covering both representations. Its potential is demonstrated by two use cases from disciplinary experts in the field of on-board system design at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), based on data provided by aircraft design experts. Through validation against the experts’ needs, the proposed system definition proves to bridge the gap between preliminary aircraft design and on-board system design, enabling a holistic, robust and efficient aircraft design process.

Due to climate change, low-emission aircraft with novel technologies, such as hydrogen-powered fuel cells, are being investigated. However, navigating the technology knowledge is challenging due to the vast number of existing and emerging technologies. Hence, supporting the engineer during the complex task of exploring, comparing, and selecting technologies from the extensive design space as part of the aircraft conceptual design phase is crucial. To address this challenge, the Technology Management for the Architecting Process of aircraft on-board Systems ( TechMAPS ) method is proposed. TechMAPS is used to navigate and manage available and emerging technologies. Moreover, the method supports the conservation and provision of technology knowledge in a standardized and formalized way. To this end, TechMAPS consists of three parts: a technology radar to identify technologies, a formalized ontology-driven database to conserve knowledge in a machine-readable, queryable way, and standardized technology fact sheets to provide concise data to the engineer. TechMAPS is exemplarily applied to different technologies of a hybrid-electric power train, i.e., a fuel cell, an existing electric motor, and battery technologies, to demonstrate the method’s capabilities to present the landscape of technologies for different systems and abstraction levels. The study highlights the effectiveness of TechMAPS for technology management but also outlines aspects that need further research, such as creating an automated and standardized interface to and from the database.

This paper presents an integrated assessment of liquid hydrogen as an aviation energy carrier, covering fuel production, aircraft performance, and fleet-level climate impacts. The results, based on the H2Avia research project, indicate substantial potential for reducing life-cycle global warming impacts compared to conventional kerosene. The analyses conducted for the interdisciplinary assessment are presented. The analysis shows that the use of liquid hydrogen eliminates CO₂ emissions during fuel burn, resulting in a significant reduction in global warming potential compared to conventional kerosene, despite remaining upstream emissions from production and transport. The aircraft application cases and the applied technologies assessment scenario are described. The modeled technologies essential for the hydrogen aircraft are discussed, and exemplary values are given. Integrated overall aircraft performance results are given and discussed. At the aircraft level, hydrogen-based aircraft require an 8–18% increase in design mission block energy compared to a 2040 kerosene baseline yet still achieve a reduction in effective global warming potential of 55–86% comparing a representative pair route between Europe and North America (6730 km). An overview of the fleet modeling approach and the applied scenarios is given. For a scenario with energy cost and climate impact as equally weighted minimization goals, the global fleet analysis yields a global warming potential reduction of 60% compared to the non-liquid hydrogen baseline scenario. Overall, the results suggest that liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft can deliver significant mission- and fleet-level reductions in global warming potential and thus represent a promising pathway for achieving long-term aviation climate targets.