System Design Results for an

Air Taxi Concept in HorizonUAM

Oliver Bertram, Florian Jäger
01 Dec 2022

DLR (German Aerospace Center)

Institute of Flight Systems
Dept. of Safety-Critical Systems
and Systems Engineering
Oliver.Bertram@dlr.de
 Air Taxi Vehicle, Systems and Cabin Concepts
Presentation Overview

Fabian Reimer, Thomas-M. Patrick Ratei, Nabih Oliver Bertram, Florian Florian Jäger, Oliver Patrick Sieb
Bock, Line Winkler, Frank Naeem, Prajwal Shiva Bertram
Jäger
Meller, Björn Nagel Prakasha

“Urban Air Mobility – “Fleet-Centric Vehicle “Development of a “Maintenance

Insights into the Virtual Design Space “System Design Safe Powertrain Considerations
and User Centric Design Explorations of Urban Results for an Air System Architecture for Urban Air
Process for a Future Air Mobility by System Taxi Concept in for the HorizonUAM Mobility Vehicles”
eVTOL Cabin Concept” of Systems Air Taxi Concept”
HorizonUAM”
Simulations”

2
 ▪ Within the HorizonUAM project, a concept for an air taxi is
being worked on
▪ The Institute of Flight Systems contributes with research
activities in the field of the onboard systems
▪ Onboard systems: Vehicle systems and avionics, their Main Rotors
interfaces to airframe, cabin, environment, vertiport,
pilot, passengers,….
Push Propellers
▪ During the project a special focus was on the full-electric
flight control system (FCS) incl. the powertrain and
power supply incl. the thermal management
▪ A multirotor with 4 main rotors and 2 push propellers
was considered as starting configuration for the
investigations
▪ Goal: Overview of current status in the system design
and its results Main Rotors
Initially developed as Medical Personnel Deployment Vehicle
(Project Urban Rescue) and adapted as an air taxi vehicle for
3 HorizonUAM.
 Onboard Systems - Design Streams

Conceptual Design Methodology

Flight Control Flight Control Power Supply /

System incl. System incl. Thermal
Powertrain Powertrain Management
Overall
Systems
System Sizing, Sizing,
Design
Architecture Design Modeling and Modeling and
Approach
and Simulation Simulation
Safety Assessment

System Integration
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 Conceptual Design Methodology

Conceptual Multirotor Design*

▪ Enables the examination of full-electric, turbo-electric and
hybrid-electric powertrain systems
▪ Based on simple models and assumptions → Uncertainties;
results should be used with a certain amount of caution
▪ Quantitative results and qualitative differences in the results
of the various powertrain architectures are credible
Key results

▪ Battery and fuel cell systems are important design drivers

(Maximum take-off mass, overall efficiency,…)
▪ 3 most promising architectures were selected:
▪ Full-electric with battery, No
Weight converged?
▪ Full-electric with fuel cell system and
Yes
▪ Hybrid-electric with battery and fuel cell system
▪ Provide estimated flight performance for system sizing

5 *presented at DLRK 2021 and AIAA SciTech 2022

 Overall Systems Design Approach
Model-Based Systems Engineering
(MBSE) Approach Recursive Model Structure Design Role

▪ Centralized system model with recursive Aircraft Level Aircraft Architect

model structure enables model segregation Analysis
and distributed, collaborative design Architecture
System X Systems Engineer X
▪ System architecture design and safety Analysis Safety Engineer
assessment acc. to design standards (e.g. Architecture
ARP4754A) incl. traceability of requirements Component 1 Component Designer 1
▪ Integration of analysis models and impact Analysis
analysis of design decisions Architecture
…
…
System Y Systems Engineer Y
Analysis
Architecture
…
Functions
Design Data Interfaces
Safety Data Requirements
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 FCS / Powertrain: System Architecture
Design and Safety Assessment
▪ SC-VTOL* / Category Enhanced: “The aircraft is capable of Rotor Drive #1 Rotor Drive #2
continued safe flight and landing…”
Battery
➢ Safe and redundant design of each main rotor and Bat #1
Management
Bat #2
➢ the ability to compensate for the loss of one main rotor with Bat #4 Bat #3
Bat #5
the remaining main rotors and the two push propellers
▪ Key results 1: Safety assessment methods (acc to. ARP4761) Rotor Drive #4 Rotor Drive #3
were applied to architect the powertrain / flight control system
▪ Safety goals are basically achievable and safety
FCC #3 Propeller Propeller
mechanisms were identified FCC
FCC#2
#1 Drive #1 Drive #2
▪ Different design requirements are derived, e.g. two
redundant electric motors per rotor, five battery packs, at
least three FCCs,… BAT 1 Rotor Drive
BAT
▪ Key results 2: Sizing, modeling and simulation
BAT 2 MC1
MC1 M1 GB1
▪ Direct rotor drive (w/o gearbox) is possible, but poor FCC Rotor
efficiency and high heat losses, higher weight MC2 M2 GB2
▪ Rotor drive with gearbox is more complex and expensive, BAT 1
but increases the powertrain efficiency BAT
M: Motor
▪ Propeller drive not yet sized VTOL: Vertical Takeoff and Landing MC: Motor Controller
7 BAT: Battery
SC-VTOL: EASA Special Condition VTOL FCC: Flight Control Computer GB: Gearbox
 Power Supply – Architectures and Design Steps

2. Full-Electric with 3. Hybrid-Electric with

1. Full-Electric with Battery Fuel Cell System Battery and Fuel Cell System
Battery Qሶ
Battery Qሶ Cooling Fuel Cell Qሶ Cooling System
(peak power) Cooling
System System System System
System
Fuel Cell Qሶ
Power Management Power Management System
(cruise power)

Electrical Loads Environment Electrical Loads Environment Power Management

Three different power supply systems were designed and analysed due to their
electrical and thermal behaviour Electrical Loads Environment
• Electrical loads were estimated using the flight performance calculation and
powertrain architecture efficiencies
• Power management and controller design not yet considered
• Similar design steps for battery pack/system and fuel cell stack/system
Cooling Sizing Validated Flight
Electrical Simulation Sensitivity
Concept Cooling Cell/Stack Mission
Sizing Model Studies
(Pack/Stack) System Model Analysis
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ሶ Heat Flow
Q:
 Power Supply – Results

Key Results
▪ For normal conditions the systems are adequately Example: Flight mission analysis with and without battery cooling
dimensioned: The cooling system lowers the
temperature for the entire mission 32
200
▪ The ambient temperature has a significant impact on 30

Electrical Power, kW
Temperature,°C
the cooling performance
28 150
▪ The temperature can be easily regulated with the
volume flow of the air 26
100
▪ The water flow will influence the temperature 24
distribution in the battery pack (more detailed
22 50
investigations needed) with cooling
w/o cooling
▪ Based on sensitivity studies a specific cooling 20
0
geometry for the battery pack and fuel cell stack could 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
be defined Time, min
▪ Similar results for battery cooling in the hybrid-electric
power supply system
→ Feasibility of the different power supply
▪ Fuel cell system without cooling is not possible, it systems was checked and verified
heats up too fast and too much
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 Summary and Outlook

▪ Onboard systems are an essential part of the air taxi

concept which is under investigation in the HorizonUAM
project 
▪ A special focus was on the flight control system incl. the
powertrain as well as the power supply incl. the thermal
management concept
▪ The designs and results shown were reached in different
parallel design streams
▪ Each design stream could verify the basic feasibility of 
the system   
▪ Although an attempt was made to proceed from same
assumptions, this was not always possible 
▪ The “System Integration” will harmonize the different
system designs (and models) to reach consistent design
results

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