Siemens AG, Diamond Aircraft and EADS are set to present the world’s first aircraft with a serial hybrid electric drive system at the Paris Air Show Le Bourget 2011. The two-seater motor glider successfully completed its maiden flight on June 8 at the Wiener Neustadt airfield in Vienna, Austria. The aircraft was built by the three partners to test the hybrid electric drive concept. In the future, the technology, which is intended for later use also in large-scale aircraft, will cut fuel consumption and emissions by 25%, compared to today’s most efficient aircraft drives.
Air traffic accounts for some 2.2% of CO2 emissions worldwide. For this reason, aircraft, too, must become more efficient. One possible solution – which Siemens and its partners Diamond Aircraft and EADS are testing in the DA36 E-Star motor glider – is to electrify the drive system.