Daher and three other aerospace firms have agreed to collaborate on a project to define an optimal hybrid-electric propulsion system for a 6-10 seat aircraft.
Partners on the effort, which Daher revealed on the third day of the Paris air show, include Collins Aerospace, Safran and French hybrid-electric specialist Ascendance.
Called TAGINE – an acronym for a French name meaning Initiative to Introduce Clean Energy in General Aviation – the collaboration will not involve production of hardware nor result in a demonstrator propulsion system, the partners say.
Rather, it involves digital modelling and studies to define a hybrid system that has an optimal degree of electrification when accounting for factors including weight and economic practicality.
The project will be jointly funded by the partners and the French government, though company executives decline to disclose financial details.
The news reflects a recent shift by Daher away from focusing on a future all-electric aircraft. Executives in April said Daher’s studies concluded that batteries cannot provide adequate range.
Daher is now focused on hybrid-electric propulsion.
The TAGINE partners will “assess the technical feasibility, economic viability and decarbonisation potential of [a] hybrid-electric propulsion architecture on a platform in the category of Daher’s single-prop Kodiak”, Daher says.
Its involvement includes providing partners with aircraft-level expertise.
“There are many ways of making a more-electric aircraft,” says Daher vice-president of engineering Christophe Robin, adding that engineers will experiment with “the level of hybridisation”, ranging from slight to significant.
Safran Helicopter Engines and Safran Tech will study “the feasibility of a hybrid propulsion system based on a next-generation turbine and electric motor”.
“The electric/thermal split will be optimised to achieve fuel savings and reduce noise and CO2 emissions,” Daher says.
Collins is charged with designing a “fully electric pitch-change system tailored to propellers” and with studying “aero-acoustic optimisation”.
Daher says Ascendance will study battery energy requirements and how to integrate batteries for hybrid-electric aircraft applications.
Broadly, the partners will model a hybrid system composed of a gas turbine, batteries, an electrical energy distribution and management system, an electric motor, a propeller control unit, a propeller and a gearbox.
