Hydrogen fuel cell-powered business jet developer Beyond Aero has completed its first windtunnel test campaign, successfully validating the aerodynamic performance of its planned BYA-1 aircraft.
Particular focus in the evaluations, which took place over a five-week period last autumn, was paid to the gaseous hydrogen tanks located on the wing-tips and at the wing-fuselage join.
Such a configuration creates “complex aerodynamic interaction zones”, locations “where even minor geometric effects can significantly influence lift, drag, and stability,” it says.
In addition to performance optimisation, the campaign was intended to prove that the configuration “behaves in a stable, predictable, and controllable manner across the intended flight envelope,” it says.
“The results confirmed the robustness of Beyond Aero’s aerodynamic design choices,” it states. Such activity also reduces “residual aerodynamic uncertainty ahead of geometry freeze and subsequent development phases.”
Testing took place at the low-speed facility of the German-Dutch Wind Tunnels in Marknesse in the Netherlands using a one-eighth scale model of the BYA-1 at speeds up to 155kt (288 km/h).
Beyond Aero is now focused on completing the preliminary design review phase of the programme having in October last year validated the performance of the hydrogen-electric powertrain.
It has previously stated a goal of freezing the design of the BYA-1 – an 800nm (1,480km)-range jet – around 2027, with service entry to follow in the early 2030s.
