Advanced Hybrid Electric Design (AHEAD) Vehicle Grand Challenge

Objective: Advanced Hybrid Electric Design (AHEAD) focused on the development a new methodology for selecting and sizing commercial hybrid electric aircraft to allow preliminary sizing of hybrid and turboelectric concepts selected using MBSE decision-making techniques.

Contribution:

• Developed methodology successfully, with sizing & synthesis tool developed in MATLAB

• Presented results at the 27th ASDL External Advisory Board to a wide range of leading industry executives

Skills:

• Sizing & synthesis

• Electric and hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion

• Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)

• MATLAB

• Report writing & presentation

Takeaways: This project utilized a legacy tool developed by a former ASDL student; learning and adapting this tool was invaluable in understanding the modeling of complex systems with disparate and modular subsystems.

Presenting the results to the ASDL External Advisory Board was an incredible experience, with a range of leading industry executives present. The interaction and feedback were an opportunity to understand how projects are conceived and analyzed at the highest levels, and how this impacts the design process.