An Energy-Based Low-Order Approach for Mission Analysis of Air Vehicles in LEAPS

Mission analysis methods that allow rapid analysis of conceptual aircraft provide great benefits to designers because a large number of feasibility and optimization studies can be performed quickly. This paper presents a novel low-order mission analysis approach that will be included in a new aircraft analysis tool called the Layered and Extensible Aircraft Performance System, also known as LEAPS. This approach is based on the mission analysis method used in the Flight Optimization System, also known as FLOPS. FLOPS has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center for over 30 years, and it is mainly used to analyze conventional aircraft (e.g., gas turbine-powered aircraft). One of the main features of FLOPS is its ability to perform rapid mission analysis. This quick analysis turnaround makes FLOPS a suitable tool to perform a large number of trade studies and optimizations. For this reason, the main concepts applied in FLOPS will be used and expanded in LEAPS to allow the analysis of unconventional aircraft that use novel propulsion systems. This expanded approach includes the capability to handle electric propulsion systems as well as multiple propulsor classes at the same time. A novel hybrid-electric aircraft configuration is used to investigate the potential benefits of the proposed mission analysis approach. The results show that the design space increases which can potentially lead to better designs.