ECO4: New Generation Hybrid-electric Four Place Aircraft
Optimized electric airframes can be combined with modern combustion engines generating electricity. In the case of the four place aircraft “ECO4”, this leads to an aircraft which cruises at 120 knots and consumes 40% less fuel than comparable state-of-the-art airplanes with conventional propulsion. Due to the low consumption, the airplane has a range of 1200 nm with four persons on-board. As a further advantage, a small but powerful battery system enables a silent take-off without the combustion engine running, reducing significantly the noise emissions. In the presentation the main design considerations will be discussed and it will be shown how the remarkable performance improvements can be achieved and how the practicability of the design was ensured.