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December 10, 2024December 10, 2024

Sustainable Lessons from Eco-Pulse Reported by Daher, Safran, and Airbus

With the report from Daher, Safran, and Airbus on the Eco-Pulse hybrid-electric TBM-inflected tech demonstrator, the collective teams have the opportunity to stay future-forward—and incorporate lessons learned. In the interest of meeting the industry’s sustainable aviation objectives, we all have a vested interest in these outcomes.

A media briefing preceded the LinkedIn liverstream on December 10, from Tarbes, France. Leaders from each company—including Pascal Laguerre, CTO of Daher; Éric Dalbiès, SEVP of strategy/CTO of Safran; and Jean-Baptiste Manchette, head of propulsion of tomorrow from Airbus—joined project lead and head of aircraft design Christophe Robin from Daher. Over the past five years since the project debuted at Paris Air Show in 2019, I’ve stayed in touch with Robin on its progress, which will inform the way forward for all three companies.

The panel of leaders from Daher, Safran, and Airbus

What Is Eco-Pulse?

The Eco-Pulse project is critical for these leaders among aerospace OEMs because hybrid-electric propulsion forms a bridge between current jet-A (sustainable aviation fuel) burning turbine engines and full-scale electric propulsion. The aircraft at its heart is a technology demonstrator, in which a standard Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprop engine remains in place on a tried-and-tested Daher TBM 900-series airframe. It’s joined by six Safran ePropellers on the wings integrated with a Safran-built turbogenerator and Airbus’ high-voltage battery pack (at 800 volts DC and up to 350 kW of power). A power distribution and rectification unit (PDRU) protects the high voltage network and distributes power via high-voltage supply harnesses.

The Eco-Pulse flew for the last time, perhaps, in July 2024. [Credit: Daher/Jean-Marie Urlacher]

The pilot can use the six motors propelling distributed lift over the wing via a unified joystick-style flight control, via the integrated flight deck. It’s a unique marriage of tech dreams and true life—the Eco-Pulse project allowed for demonstration of these technologies within the envelope of safety required by the simple fact it was taking flight in the real world, not a simulation.

Flying it remains key to showing the operational safety necessary to move forward.

The flight testing took place mostly with the PT6 in “transparent” mode.

Flight Testing the Eco-Pulse

In the livestream, the flight test team described the progressive activation of the ePropellers and the eventually complete electrical actuation of the airframe and powertrain. During flight test, most of the hours of electric flight were conducted with the PT6 in “transparent” mode—not producing power, but not completely shut down.

Each step provided data to the respective companies, building on successive knowledge. For example, much was learned by flying the aircraft under its fly-by-wire (FBW) system, and under speed constraints. Stalls as well as the top speed of the demonstrator (190 kts) were explored. Slower airspeeds—as opposed to high-speed flight—provided some of the richest data, as the effect of the distributed lift caused by the ePropellers showed up most with lower in-flight airflow.

“You can imagine when when you have this propeller on the wing,” said Robin in the briefing. “The behavior is really different—you ‘blow’ the wing so the efficiency of the wing is completely different, thanks to the blowing effect of these six propellers. You increase the performance at takeoff, [and] during some maneuvers, and you can play with the flight controls, playing with the different[ial] power of these six engines. By doing that, you can play with the trajectory of the aircraft.”

Since the first hybrid-electric test flight on November 29, 2023, the Eco-Pulse has logged more than 100 hours in 50 flights, during which the team also noted other performance improvements, as well as the ability to reduce cabin noise with synchronization of the six propellers.

Unexpected Lessons: A Lot of Power

Two key learnings included a big challenge—managing the 800 VDC battery and the harness that distributes the power—as well as understanding how it will be maintained and serviced in real-world conditions. Things are just different in the air: A battery fire, for one, is more complicated than in ground-based vehicles, and because of the presence of the traditional turboprop engine, that fire may occur in close proximity to the fuel system.

The team learned from these issues: “Each unexpected issue on the aircraft has been ‘good news’,” said Robin. “There’s been…bad things, but also good news, because when on a subject…we didn’t think about, and Safran didn’t think about, that means that there was something real [to test and discover], That’s the point of making a demonstrator, to be in real life and not making only Powerpoints.

“We had some integration issues about the harness,” he continued. “It seems easy to install [an electrical distribution] harness with 800 volts in real life. [But] when you get more knowledge, [it’s] not that easy, especially when you have fuel, which is not too far away. You have to take care of all the dysfunctional cases. And we learned that some of them were probably not taken at the right level. We learned a lot on the integration of the harness.”

“We learned a lot also about the operation of high voltage aircraft,” he added, “because we are thinking design as an engineer [during] certification, but at the end of the day, well, you have an aircraft, and if you have 800-volt batteries, how you do you operate? How do the maintenance people take care of it?”

Ground Testing of High-Voltage Systems 2023

Daher + Safran + Airbus

Collaboration between the three giants was also a key takeaway: They essentially learned how to transform the relationship between airframe and powerplant OEMs as well as how to leverage the agility of start-ups that were brought into the development of the Eco-Pulse. The marketable aircraft program will depend on this coordination.

“So for the time being, we can enjoy something like 10-year periods, starting 2020 till the end of the decade, where we can focus our engineering teams on the preparation of the most disruptive technologies for the future,” said Pascal Laguerre in the media briefing. “That’s really an opportunity to make this happen. So we see this opportunity between our companies to align our goals at the same moment in time with the same mindset, the same intent, and saying, ‘Well, none of us individually can do it, can make it happen.’”

Sourcing of raw materials, including the rare earth metals needed for the batteries, from places on the globe that are not secure, is another takeaway from the program. Recycling those materials in a circular economy is vital to meeting several objectives, including those overall to support sustainable aviation. Finding other ways of approaching component construction and reuse is also critical.

Thrust Performance & Flight Controls 2024

What Comes Next for Daher?

The follow-on aircraft program from Daher and CORAC will be explored with a project beginning in 2025 with the goal of meeting the OEM’s objective of a go-to-market aircraft plan by 2027. With the real flight testing of Eco-Pulse, the goals are transformed beyond “the paper” according to Robin: “We have now a better idea of what the maturity is of the technological bricks [that] we can put inside an aircraft. We will launch next year a new CORAC project with Safran, in order to work on these hybridization and electrical technologies.

“The idea is to have this assessment of the [technologies’] maturity and to be able to meet the objectives given by my CEO [Didier Kayat],” he concluded. “That’s to propose a design and manufacture aircraft by the end of this strategic plan—so by the end of 2027, we [will be] working on this more electrical aircraft.” Also, Daher’s team will determine what the benefits were of the distributed propulsion system.

We’re certainly excited to see the next project leave the hangar…

May 3, 2024May 3, 2024

Climbing Fast, Sustainably

Just before the monthly Washington Aero Club luncheon—hosted by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA)—kicked off on Thursday, I was chatting with two members of of the general media whom I had not yet met. One represented Bloomberg’s tax-related publications and was relatively new to the beat. The other reported for the Wall Street Journal’s general business coverage, and had not delved much into private aviation (aside from a stint sitting next to Jon Ostrower while he was still at the WSJ, from whom he said he soaked up aerospace insight like a sponge).

The pair each echoed in their own words the fact they had been invited to a panel on sustainability in business aviation—yet before that moment, had no idea that those flying BA had any desire to act sustainably. “I had no idea anyone flying private jets cared,” was the consensus.

I know in theory how true it is that we often preach to our own choir in BA/GA, but once more I was slapped in the face with proof.

First, kudos to NBAA for bringing these two reporters from the general media (among others) into a room where they would hear an up-to-date and frank accounting from three leaders in our space that sit at the tip of the sustainability spear: Michael Amalfitano, president and CEO of Embraer Executive Jets, Billy Nolen, former deputy FAA Administrator and chief regulatory affairs officer for Archer Aviation, and Scott Lewis, president of World Energy (WE) SupplyZero, one of the largest producers of sustainable aviation fuel in the United States and globally.

In summary, here’s where we are in terms of the three pillars remarked upon by Amalfitano, Nolen, and Lewis—and underlined by moderator Ed Bolen of NBAA:

Commitment from the Manufacturers: Embraer now uptakes weekly the volume of SAF it had delivered quarterly in 2023. Amalfitano noted the Brazilian OEM had tested to 100 percent—”neat”—SAF in its Phenom 300 and Praetor 600, and that it uses the fuel in various blends for test flight, demos, and customer deliveries. “That will allow us to increase what was a low mid-single-digit consumption of SAF to 20 to 25 percent of what we do out of Melbourne” in 2024, he said. Embraer has cooperated with its engine OEM partners, including Honeywell, through the process.

Legislative Synergy for Sourcing and Distribution: Lewis outlined how WE SupplyZero is growing volume at the best rate possible, producing SAF derived from animal fats and used cooking oil. “We are employing latest technology that’s available right now in order to take that up from where we are today,” said Lewis. “About 4,000 barrels a day, of which about 1,000 barrels is sustainable aviation fuel, up to 25,000 barrels a day, of which 20,000 barrels is sustainable aviation fuel.” WE is also working on a pipeline that will deliver from its main terminal in the Los Angeles area (and soon to come in Houston), in order to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the SAF, so that its benefit is not just zero emissions from aircraft exhaust, but through the entire chain. Leaders in the audience noted the passing of the most recent agriculture funding bill in synergy with the last infrastructure funding bills and FAA Reauthorization Act to support biodiesel production in the U.S. The Biden Administration has challenged the industry to produce 3 billion gallons per year of SAF by 2030.

Advanced Air Mobility Goes Electric: Along with Amalfitano, who outlined Embraer’s electric push with its stake in Eve (an electric VTOL), Nolen reported on Archer’s leadership in bringing a viable eVTOL to market, with the regulatory basis established, airline partnerships in play, and a roadmap to infrastructure to support the accelerated development. He brought up another key feature of moving eventually to electric power: the quiet needed to fly within residential communities. “How have we gotten to this point?” said Nolen. “Three critical things have happened. Number one, battery cell technology has gotten us to the point that we have…the carrying capacity. Number two, the FAA has given us a regulatory path to get there. And number three, we’ve had the level of federal investment which, in turn, has unlocked the financial investment.”

All three areas will be required to maintain at least the current pace—and accelerate—in order to continue what BA has managed to accomplish in increased efficiency over the course of the last 40 years. Because the 30 percent greater efficiency gains that we have seen with each new bizjet model over that timeframe aren’t going to be enough to cover the spread in the future.

April 21, 2024May 4, 2024

AERO Takes on Innovation, Part 2

AERO filled its 12 halls with an electric energy, notable on the light end of the market.

And this makes sense, because the show’s DNA lies in ultralights, gliders, balloons, training airplanes—even remote-control models.

Now it has logged 30 “flights,” so to speak, running back to 1977 when it was part of a regional motorsports exhibition, and happening every other year until it became an annual event in a few years back, with a pause for two years for COVID.

When SOCATA first put its TBM 700 prototype on display in 1994, it helped introduce higher-end personal and business aviation into the show. With the presence of Pilatus, Cessna and Beechcraft (now Textron Aviation) in the 2000s, and now Gulfstream with its G500 on display this year—it indicates the importance of this growing B2B show in the marketplace for turboprops and jets.

These aircraft must also meet the industry’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050—and interim targets won’t likely be met by pure electric aircraft or those that run on hydrogen.

While Safran’s ENGINeUS motors gain in kWs (and equivalent horsepower) and power storage hits the 800-kW level, our brightest minds still don’t have a good way to translate that power into speed and range—and do it safely.

Case in point: Daher’s EcoPulse project, which places six Safran motors in distributed positions on its TBM-based wings powered via an Airbus storage system—but keeps a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-66D up front. Judging by the flight test profiles I talked about with Daher’s head of design, Christophe Robin, the project is working through a host of problem sets, and it won’t present as a marketable product. In SVP of aircraft Nicolas Chabbert’s update at Sun ’n Fun, and again at AERO, he noted the need to craft a salable solution that would likely look nothing like it. There are constraints and issues associated with flying around carrying that amount of battery power and distributing it safely in an airplane’s joint “cardiovascular” and “nervous” systems that still need sorting through.

Whatever they bring to the table, it won’t be flying on pure electrical power—not to make their self-imposed target date of 2027. And that makes a lot of sense. In talking with Tine Tomažič of Pipistrel, he explained that to get the speed and range you need for a good cross-country mount (such as Pipistrel’s Panthera design), you need the hybrid route for the near future. The battery tech just isn’t there yet.

So we need to keep those turbines running—and on a zero-emission fuel as soon as we can. Pressure looms larger in Europe to meet net-zero goals before 2050. While we didn’t see any protests at AERO from the general public, the specter of them loomed as we headed to Munich for our flight back across the pond. The industry is working diligently towards getting sustainable aviation fuel to the users who have vowed to adopt it—so they can keep projects like the hybrid Panthera and the EcoPulse innovating towards the future.

The way to do this is not to syphon off all the SAF to the airlines at major airports like Amsterdam’s Schipol and Paris-Orly. We can adopt book and claim practices to help offset high prices and availability of SAF to the 2,000 or so airports in the EU that business aviation uses.

And we can support the development of alternative bio sources for SAF that help increase its volume overall. Projects like Gevo’s intrigue me as cradle-to cradle solutions for utilizing biowaste on a large enough scale to make more than a drop in the bucket.

And biz av should have primary access to it first—because this is where the skunk works live and thrive.

A link to GAMA’s white paper, “Recommendations for Accelerating the Development of the Electric Aviation Sector in Europe”

March 15, 2024

Jet-A Tax on BizAv?

The recent budget proposal from the White House includes a number of positive points—but one stands to kneecap the aviation industry just as it starts to leave the chocks on sustainability.

That’s the proposed 4X increase (from 22 cents to $1.06/gallon over 5 years) in the fuel tax on Jet-A for bizav operators, a line item that surely resonates with the green set, but bodes poorly for the ability to grow capability, capacity, and jobs under the sustainable aviation umbrella. The quest to net-zero by 2050 absolutely depends on it.

Here are my quick takes:

The healthy flow of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) into the market relies upon the demand for Jet-A. While commercial aviation represents the bulk of the volume, business aviation has the flexibility and higher margins to accommodate the experimentation required to bring new sources of zero-emission fuel into play.
The infrastructure investments required to deliver SAF lean on the ability of local FBOs and governments—and distributors—to justify the cost to equip. With lower flowage into these wide-spread locations, the business case grows even more difficult than it already is in some places.
Bringing aircraft production into the U.S.—and keeping what we have—is central to providing skilled labor with well-paying, satisfying work. Keeping sales and delivery volumes to what they reached in the bizav sector before and after the pandemic is vital to offering these desirable positions.
And, at a time when aircraft OEMs fight hard to secure the workforce they need, the ability to appeal to the younger generation with sustainable aviation projects is critical to attracting the brightest minds to our industry. They want to be part of the solution. Raising the tax on one sector that provides some of the coolest jobs in aviation—across the board from engineers to marketers—is at best shortsighted and at worst a true crux for the industry.