Evaluation of Sustainable Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Aircraft Configurations Using Liquid Hydrogen Fuel

There is pressing need for increase in efficiency and reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the next generation commercial passenger aircraft in order to reduce the environmental impact of the aviation industry. The focus of this work is on the design considerations for a mid-range single aisle commercial aircraft using liquid hydrogen for propulsion. A matrix of aircraft configurations is considered with varying size of fuel tanks placed external or internal to the fuselage. In particular, an aircraft configuration with a high aspect ratio truss braced wing is investigated to improve lift and range in comparison to a more traditional cantilever wing. The tradeoff between the tanks placed inside and outside is evaluated by considering their effect on the aircraft performance. Aircraft performance is assessed using the aircraft design and analysis tool RDSWin in conjunction with aerodynamics, propulsion, and weight estimation methods. Design and drag optimization of external liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel tanks is achieved using a MATLAB code. The aircraft performance analysis shows that internal LH2 tanks are a better choice compared to external tanks due to additional drag added by the external tanks.