The Development and Challenges of More Electric Aircraft

Abstract

The development of electrical and electronic engineering makes the replacement of conventional hydraulic, mechanic, and pneumatic system into electrical system become much more possible. That means the secondary power of aircraft will be dominated by electricity, rather than hydraulic oil or bleed air from the engine. The Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 has applied these technologies significantly and their fuel consumption and noise level during flight are also get improved by comparison with their counterpart which has traditional hydraulic and pneumatic system. On the other side, the mass application of electrical driven components on board will lead to various new challenges to aircraft design when concerning the weight and flight safety due to the characteristics of those components. In this paper, technologies implemented, and challenges will be introduced through reviewing literatures. The benefit and drawbacks will be concluded by comparing electrical and hydraulic and pneumatic system.