The Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) has received an award under the NASA Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability (AACES) 2050 contract. Through the AACES initiative, NASA asked industry and academia to come up with studies looking at aircraft concepts, key technologies, and designs that could offer the transformative solutions needed to secure commercial aviation’s sustainable future by 2050. NASA issued five awards, worth a total of $11.5 million–four to companies and one to a university. These new NASA-funded studies will help the agency identify and select promising aircraft concepts and technologies for further investigations.

“We are excited to be selected by NASA as part of their AACES 2050 initiative,” said Prof. Dimitri Mavris, Distinguished Regents Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering and Director of ASDL. “To be part of an effort to examine designs and technologies for airliners of the future is of critical importance to the aviation industry. We look forward to helping advance sustainable aviation along with NASA and its other awardees.”

As part of its work under this contract, ASDL’s Advanced Configurations Division will develop a set of harmonized scenarios investigating what the air transportation system will look like between 2045 and 2050, including drastically reducing emissions while providing more transportation volume than ever before. These scenarios will describe market demand factors, energy availability, aviation infrastructure, and other key factors and assumptions that would affect the air transportation system.

ASDL will also use these scenarios to define the technology and subsystems portfolio that is critical for sustainable aviation and improving environmental performance in an attempt to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goals by 2050.

Finally, ASDL will perform an aircraft concept design space exploration that best incorporates the chosen technology portfolio. ASDL has also proposed and will further develop a unique aircraft concept called the Advanced Technology Hydrogen Electric Novel Aircraft (ATH2ENA) as a potential technology collector and solution for greener aviation in 2050. “As the name suggests, the ATH2ENA will be powered by hydrogen and electric energy sources, leveraging multiple advanced technologies to minimize its environmental impact” said Research Engineer and MDAO Technical Lead Christian Perron. “ATH2ENA’s unique shape, which is a hybrid between a blended wing body and a tube and wing, is designed specifically to maximize cryogenic hydrogen storage volume while balancing aerodynamic efficiency and overall structural weight” said Research Engineer and Aerodynamics Technical Lead Jai Ahuja. ASDL will identify the best aircraft concept and conduct a comprehensive design and analysis effort demonstrating how the chosen solution can substantially reduce aviation’s environmental impact.

“ASDL has over 30 years of experience in future scenario developments, technology assessments, and advanced concept evaluations via system analysis", said Jimmy Tai, Associate Director of ASDL and the Advanced Configurations Division Chief. “This puts us in a great position to support NASA in finding solutions to develop a sustainable subsonic commercial transport concept for entry into service by 2050 and to reduce substantially aviation’s environmental impact in the process.”

AACES 2050 is part of NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology project, which explores and develops technology to further NASA’s vision for the future development of fixed-wing transport aircraft with revolutionary energy efficiency. The project falls under NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program, which evaluates and develops technologies for new aircraft systems and explores promising air travel concepts.

For more information about the awards:

• NASA announcement
• Aviation Week article