POLITECNICO DI MILANO

Corso di Laurea Magistrale in I ngegneria Meccanica

eVTOL AIRCRAFT CONCEPTUAL

Supervisors
Prof. Davide Tarsitano
Prof. Lorenzo Trainelli

Mehmet Efe Balli

Academic Year 2019/2020

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In memory of Mahir Saçaklı (1969-2020), Hatice Saçaklı (1945-2020) and all those we
lost in the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Acknowledgements
I find it a must to extend my thanks to my supervisors, Professor Davide Tarsitano
and Professor Lorenzo Trainelli for their support and availability,
Professor Pierangelo Masarati for making the right connections and making the
collaboration possible,
Leonardo Elicotteri for entrusting me with their data,
Andrea Bavetta of Leonardo Elicotteri for his continued support,
My family for their unconditional support.

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Contents
List of Symbols ........................................................................................................ viii
List of Figures ............................................................................................................ x
List of Tables ........................................................................................................... xii
Abstract .................................................................................................................. xiv
Riassunto.................................................................................................................. xv
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Motivation and framework ............................................................................ 1
1.2 State of the Art ............................................................................................. 2
1.3 Literature survey ........................................................................................... 4
1.4 Approach of the present work........................................................................ 5
2 Methodology........................................................................................................ 6
2.1 Building blocks .............................................................................................. 6
2.2 Modelling....................................................................................................... 7
2.2.1 Atmosphere ............................................................................................. 7
2.2.2 Missions .................................................................................................. 7
2.2.3 Wings.................................................................................................... 10
2.2.4 Propellers/rotors ................................................................................... 12
2.2.5 Fuselage ................................................................................................ 25
2.2.6 Landing gear ......................................................................................... 25
2.2.7 Support structure .................................................................................. 26
2.2.8 Nacelles ................................................................................................. 26
2.2.9 Electric motors ...................................................................................... 26
2.2.10 Battery ................................................................................................. 28
2.2.11 Other electric components ..................................................................... 28
2.2.12 Cooling system ...................................................................................... 30
2.2.13 Flight control ........................................................................................ 30
2.2.14 Actuators .............................................................................................. 31
2.2.15 Ancillary components ............................................................................ 31
2.2.16 Internal combustion engine ................................................................... 32
2.3 Sizing........................................................................................................... 37
2.4 Pros and Cons ............................................................................................. 39
2.4.1 Advantages ........................................................................................... 39
2.4.2 Disadvantages/Limitations.................................................................... 39

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 2.4.3 Reliability ............................................................................................. 39
2.5 Implementation in MATLAB ...................................................................... 41
2.5.1 Input file reading and optimization management .................................. 43
2.5.2 Assembly of BB’s, weight and power estimation ................................... 43
2.6 Input and output formats ............................................................................ 45
2.6.1 Aircraft parameters ............................................................................... 46
2.6.2 Mission parameters ............................................................................... 46
2.6.3 Constants .............................................................................................. 46
2.6.4 Output files ........................................................................................... 46
3 Optimization ..................................................................................................... 48
3.1 Goals ........................................................................................................... 48
3.2 Variables ..................................................................................................... 48
3.3 Example uses ............................................................................................... 49
4 Survey of existing concepts ................................................................................ 54
4.1 Wisk (formerly Kitty Hawk) Cora ............................................................... 55
4.2 Airbus Vahana α ......................................................................................... 56
4.3 Lilium Jet .................................................................................................... 57
4.4 Pipistrel 801 ................................................................................................ 58
4.5 Tier One R44............................................................................................... 59
4.6 Sikorsky Firefly ........................................................................................... 60
4.7 Ehang 184 ................................................................................................... 61
4.8 Joby S2 ....................................................................................................... 62
4.9 Joby S4 ....................................................................................................... 63
4.10 CityAirbus ................................................................................................... 64
4.11 Bell Nexus 6HX ........................................................................................... 65
4.12 Moog Surefly ............................................................................................... 66
5 Application studies ............................................................................................ 67
6 Results and discussion ....................................................................................... 72
7 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................... 77
8 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 79
Appendix 1 List of included building blocks with their respective inputs .................. 84
Appendix 2 Constants .............................................................................................. 88
Appendix 3 Aircraft parameters ............................................................................... 90
Appendix 4 Mission parameters .............................................................................. 113

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List of Symbols
A Area
AR Aspect ratio
aw Fan wake tube contraction ratio
c Battery power density
C Battery energy density
Cd Drag coefficient
Cl Lift coefficient
CT Thrust coefficient
Cp Power coefficient
d Drag
D Diameter
e Oswald efficiency factor
FF Form factor
h/b Winglet height-to-span ratio
I Current
klam Laminar fraction
kturb Turbulent fraction
L Length
M Moment
Ma Mach
n Load factor
P Power
PF Packing factor
q Dynamic pressure
𝑄̇ Heat flux
S Surface area
T Thrust
t Temperature
t/c Airfoil thickness-to-chord ratio
vi Induced velocity
W Weight
w Wake velocity
Ʌ Wing sweep
η Efficiency
κ Induced power factor

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λ Inflow ratio
μ Advance ratio
ρ Density
σ Solidity
ψ Taper ratio
χ Technological fudge factor

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List of Figures
Figure 1-1 Flight speed and range for all analysed aircraft. ........................................ 3
Figure 2-1 Sizing scheme ............................................................................................ 7
Figure 2-2 Example intracity mission ......................................................................... 9
Figure 2-3 Example intercity mission ......................................................................... 9
Figure 2-4 Example interurban mission ...................................................................... 9
Figure 2-5 Thrust components for lift + thrust elements .......................................... 13
Figure 2-6 Lift fraction breakdown ........................................................................... 13
Figure 2-7 Illustration of flow through rotor disk ..................................................... 15
Figure 2-8 Power versus thrust coefficient at hover .................................................. 20
Figure 2-9 Power versus forward speed at edgewise flight......................................... 20
Figure 2-10 Trendline of electric motor weights and torque values ........................... 27
Figure 2-11 Required power with flight time of the Moog Surefly............................. 35
Figure 2-12 Weight convergence and sizing .............................................................. 37
Figure 2-13 Workflow in the weight convergence algorithm ...................................... 47
Figure 3-1 CTOW vs wingspan, vertical rotor diameter and number of rotor pairs for
the Cora ................................................................................................................... 50
Figure 3-2 Contour plot of Cora’s takeoff weight versus vertical rotor radius and
wingspan .................................................................................................................. 51
Figure 3-3 Contour plot of cruise power consumption of the Vahana α versus
propeller radius and solidity ..................................................................................... 52
Figure 3-4 Graph of Bell Nexus’s CTOW versus ICE generated power .................... 53
Figure 4-1 Wisk Cora. The sideways tilt of the rotors is to be noted ........................ 55
Figure 4-2 Airbus Vahana α ..................................................................................... 56
Figure 4-3 Lilium Jet on its first flight ..................................................................... 57
Figure 4-4 Pipistrel 801 concept drawing .................................................................. 58
Figure 4-5 Tier One R44 in flight ............................................................................. 59
Figure 4-6 Sikorsky Firefly ....................................................................................... 60
Figure 4-7 Ehang 184 ............................................................................................... 61
Figure 4-8 Joby S2 concept design, taken from a video still...................................... 62
Figure 4-9 Joby S4 ................................................................................................... 63
Figure 4-10 CityAirbus ............................................................................................. 64
Figure 4-11 Bell Nexus 6HX conceptual image ......................................................... 65
Figure 4-12 Moog (then Workhorse) Surefly ............................................................. 66
Figure 5-1 Trend of takeoff weight with fan wake tube contraction ratio ................. 68
Figure 5-2 Trend of aircraft takeoff weight with the change of solidity..................... 69

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Figure 5-3 Trend of takeoff weight with battery specific energy. .............................. 70
Figure 5-4 Trend of takeoff weight with battery specific power. ............................... 70
Figure 5-5 Contour plot of takeoff weight with diameters and lengths of the 801 ..... 71
Figure 6-1 Comparison of published and calculated takeoff weights ......................... 73
Figure 6-2 Comparison of published and calculated battery weights ......................... 74
Figure 6-3 Comparison of hover power and installed power ...................................... 75
Figure 6-4 Comparison of hover and cruise specific power ........................................ 76

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List of Tables
Table 2-1 Mission parameters ..................................................................................... 8
Table 2-2 List of electric motors used for weight-torque regression ........................... 27
Table 2-3 Table of FCS weights ............................................................................... 30
Table 2-4 Table of power required by FCS by type .................................................. 30
Table 2-5 Weight and power of ancillary components .............................................. 31
Table 2-6 Reference engines for rotational speed estimation ..................................... 34
Table 4-1 Results of the Cora ................................................................................... 55
Table 4-2 Results of the Vahana α............................................................................ 56
Table 4-3 Results of the Pipistrel 801 ....................................................................... 58
Table 4-4 Results of the Tier One R44 ..................................................................... 59
Table 4-5 Results of the Sikorsky Firefly. ................................................................. 60
Table 4-6 Results of the Ehang 184 .......................................................................... 61
Table 4-7 Results of the Joby S4 .............................................................................. 63
Table 4-8 Results of the CityAirbus ......................................................................... 64
Table 4-9 Results of the Nexus 6HX......................................................................... 65
Table 4-10 Results of the Surefly .............................................................................. 66
Table 6-1 Analysis results of all aircraft ................................................................... 72

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Abstract
A method for preliminary aircraft sizing for electric vertical takeoff and
landing (eVTOL) vehicles is presented, wherein the aircraft is considered as the sum
of building blocks and estimations for the weight of each component are employed.
Existing aircraft are examined for their configuration and mission profiles, then
example mission profiles are defined. The methodology to estimate the weight, drag
and/or power of each module are described and the rotor power estimation is
compared to wind tunnel tests, then the methods of assembling said modules are
described. Possible uses, including but not limited to design space exploration, up to
3 variable optimization and sensitivity studies are demonstrated. Finally, from
publicly available data, 12 aircraft are examined and their weights and other
performance metrics are estimated, cross-compared, and contrasted with existing
aircraft data available.

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Riassunto
Viene presentato un metodo per il dimensionamento preliminare del velivolo
per il decollo e l'atterraggio verticale elettrico (eVTOL), in cui il velivolo viene
considerato come la somma dei blocchi costitutivi e vengono utilizzate stime per il
peso di ciascun componente. I velivoli esistenti vengono esaminati per la loro
configurazione e profili di missione, quindi vengono definiti esempi di profili di
missione. Viene descritta la metodologia per stimare il peso, la resistenza e / o la
potenza di ciascun modulo e la stima della potenza del rotore viene confrontata con i
test in galleria del vento, quindi vengono descritti i metodi di assemblaggio di detti
moduli. Sono dimostrati possibili usi, tra cui, l'esplorazione dello spazio di
progettazione, studi di sensibilità e ottimizzazione con un massimo di 3 variabili.
Infine, a partire da dati disponibili al pubblico, vengono esaminati 12 velivoli e i loro
pesi e altre metriche di prestazione vengono stimati e confrontati con i dati dei
velivoli esistenti disponibili.

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