Study on the mission economy of hybrid and electric flying cars

Flying cars are significant to future three-dimensional(3D) transportation. Pure-electric power possesses environmental-friendliness and low noise, which are suitable for urban air mobility (UAM). The hybrid power can achieve rapid power switching between vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and cruising, and can easily meet the energy demand of long-range mission, making it suitable for intercity commuting. However, the high fidelity models of the power propulsion system are still lack, so does the quantitative research on the impact of flight mission parameters on the installed configuration and energy economy indicators of pure electric and hybrid power. The application scenarios have not been clearly distinguished. Firstly, this paper gives a flight mission profile that combines VTOL with climb and decent. Then, the installation performance requirements of batteries energy and power density are discussed. Afterwards, an optimization method for the installation configuration of pure electric and hybrid power systems that minimize the mission economy is progressed. The effects of different VTOL heights, ranges, and maximum take-off mass (MTOM) on mission economy for pure electric and hybrid flying cars are analysed. It is found that when VTOL height is 120m, the maximum range of pure electric flying vehicles is 180km. The mission economy of hybrid flying cars will be better than pure electric ones after 120km. As the range grow, the payload of pure electric flying cars decreases rapidly. The hybrid flying cars can maintain the payload of 30% MTOM, which present the mission economy of 0.003 RMB/kg km.