Climate-friendly flying
DLR awards students for climate-compatible short-haul aircraft.
- Students from TU Berlin impressed the jury during the DLR Design Challenge 2024, winning first place with their CHARGE concept.
- The task for this year’s Design Challenge was to design a short-haul aircraft that is both climate compatible and economical.
- Focus: Aviation, climate-compatible flying, young talent, digitalisation
During the final event of the DLR Design Challenge 2024, the jury has awarded first place to the TU Berlin student team. The winners prevailed over five other participating teams at the final event on 8 August 2024 at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) site in Hamburg-Finkenwerder.
In order to make air transport climate-compatible in the coming decades, innovative technologies must be advanced. As short-haul flights account for a significant proportion of current carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from aviation, the DLR Design Challenge 2024 was focussed on addressing this area. The task for participants was to design a low-emission aircraft for future short-haul transportation.
“Aviation is currently undergoing one of the most intensive transformation processes in its history. There is therefore a considerable need for research and development, and DLR sees itself as an architect and integrator of aviation research,” emphasises Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of the DLR Executive Board. “The exchange of knowledge, new and disruptive approaches and an openness to technology are indispensable for our work. Participants in the DLR Design Challenge 2024 have successfully demonstrated all of this in their designs for an environmentally compatible and economically efficient short-haul aircraft for the year 2050.”
Key skills: expertise, creativity and team spirit
Six student teams presented their designs at the final event in the competition, for which they had around four months of development time. The students went through processes similar to real aircraft design: from the initial concept and detailed elaboration and calculation of technical aspects, to the convincing final presentation in front of an expert jury. They gained valuable experience and combined their acquired knowledge with practical skills as they worked under realistic conditions, addressing current challenges in the aviation industry. The task required not only technical expertise, but also creativity and teamwork.
Over the course of the project, the students invested several hundred hours into developing their concepts and will benefit in the long term from the extensive experience and contact with experts in the industry. The Design Challenge was jointly organised by the DLR Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics and the DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology.
First place in the DLR Design Challenge 2024 went to the team from TU Berlin. Their CHARGE concept impressed the jury with a detailed report in which all design decisions were justified and explained. All of the important areas were comprehensively addressed, and the use of innovative technologies was backed up with solid research. The TU Braunschweig team came second with their VoltAirs-95 concept which particularly impressed the judges with its high level of practicability, striking a good balance between innovation and proven technologies. Third place went to the DHBW Ravensburg team with their HYPER concept. They presented a well-considered design that left few questions unanswered from the jury. Their detailed analysis of the propulsion concept went down particularly well. “Overall, each of the designs submitted were deemed innovative and very creative, meaning that all of the teams are considered winners,” said the jury during the award ceremony.
Cutting CO2 with greater efficiency for short-haul routes
One of the requirements for the design of the new aircraft was that it should be operational by 2050, and that it should be able to serve a specified network of European regional routes both ecologically and economically. By analysing the network, participants were left to choose the aircraft’s flight range and passenger capacity themselves and thus optimally fulfil both requirements. The choice of energy source was also left open, so teams were free to decide between hydrogen, electricity and sustainable aviation fuel in hybrid operation.
