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FrEACs (Future Enhanced Aircraft Configurations)

The project FrEACs (Future Enhanced Aircraft Configurations) led by DLR Air Transportation Systems aims to quantify uncertainties in the design process for new aircraft and to apply them to the design of two unconventional configurations.

Project description

Over the course of several projects, DLR has developed a distributed design system based on physical analysis models and used it for a variety of largely conventional configurations. Since the uncertainties involved in the design process are unknown, the reliability of the conclusions drawn by the design system are not quantifiable. In particular in the case of unconventional configurations in which only limited empirical data is available it is difficult to classify the quality of the results.

Strut-braced wing configuration

In the FrEACs project, two unconventional configurations are considered: firstly a strut-braced wing configuration as a shorthaul aircraft and secondly a blended wing body configuration for longhaul flights. In both cases market entry from 2035 is envisaged. During the course of the project, aircraft evaluation procedures already available at DLR with regard to costs, airside capacity and noise will be integrated into the design process and evaluated for both of the configurations designed.

Blended wing body configuration

As part of FrEACs, the Institute of Flight Guidance is developing a connection between the fast-time simulation environment Simmod PLUS! and the DLR's preliminary design toolchain. This will make it possible to automatically evaluate innovative aircraft configurations with regard to their potential impacts on airport capacity. The central issue here is runway capacity. It describes the ability of a runway system to handle a particular number of takeoffs and landings within a specified period of time. It depends on a wide range of factors, including the aircraft's performance parameters, separation rules, runway layout and approach and departure routes.

Thanks to the connection with the DLR's toolchain which has been developed over the course of the project, the design parameters of the new aircraft and relevant results from other tools in the toolchain can be transferred and fed into a joint simulation scenario. The simulation is then automatically run and evaluated. The capacity values arrived at are finally made available to the researchers for further processing.