Aircraft Hybridization and Electrification Roadmap

The present state of technology together with the need of more efficient systems are impelling the aerospace industry toward new architectures through the introduction of hybrid-electric propulsion.
The change, already announced few years ago, is now happening. Many aerospace companies are replying to this call following different paths. The definition of their roadmap and technological strategy represents the crucial point for achieving fast changes and win against the competitors. Some of the emerging actors of the hybridization/electrification scene are the UTC (United Technology Centre) that has just created a new start-up for the realization of a hybrid-electric X-plane, Safran, collaborating with Bell Helicopter on the Nexus project, and companies like Rolls Royce (RR) and General Electric (GE) with their undiscussed presence.
The idea of the session is to gather four exponents of the aforementioned pillar companies to discuss the rationale of their programs and if their efforts will lead to a common objective.
As the pace of the technology change accelerates, flying companies must be more focused while embracing new approaches to train the pilots. We recently heard about the crash of the Boeing 737 Max attributed to an insufficiently instructed pilot. The presence of a pilot in the session will help in giving a direction to the discussion by providing an external point of view with a focus on the impact of the new systems on the direct users.
As the proposed special session would be a sequel of the special session series established last year by the WIE ECCE initiative, ideally in the panel there will be at least two women figures.

Session Chair:

Sara Roggia (M’16) completed her Bachelor degree and her Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at the Politecnico di Bari, Italy. She received her PhD in electrical machines design at the University of Nottingham, UK, as a Marie Curie Fellow in 2017. She has worked extensively on the development of novel electrical machines technologies for aircraft ground operations within the context of the more electric aircraft initiative. In May 2017, Sara joined Motor Design Limited (MDL) working on the design of different topologies of electrical machines. Currently, she is a senior research engineer at SAFRAN, France. Her main areas of interests are the design and thermal management of electrical machines and more electric aircraft technologies.

Speakers:

Edward Lovelace, Ph.D.
Technical Fellow, High Power Electrical Systems
Electric Power Systems Division Manager
Aurora Flight Sciences
A Boeing Company
Lovelace.Ed@aurora.aero

Matthew Burger
Senior Electrical Engineer | Research and Technology
Safran Aerosystems | Electrical & Cockpit Systems Div. | Zodiac Innovative Power Solutions
ZODIAC INNOVATIVE POWER SOLUTIONS
Matthew.Burger@zodiacaerospace.com 

Wu, Xin, PhD                   
R&D Scientist ans Project Leader
UTRC 
WuXi@utrc.utc.com

Lijun He

Lead Electrical Engineer at GE Global Research
Albany, New York Area

GE GLOBAL RESEARCH

lijun.he@ge.com