Investigation on the Potential of Hybrid Aero-Engine System with Electromagnetic-Driving Fan

The so-called Blended Wing Body (BWB)-like aircraft configuration might accompany an electric fan driven propulsion system as a propulsion device. Electromagnetic fans are good for distributed propulsion. Our earlier paper presented a motor concept suited to driving propulsion fans for the aircraft configuration. By introducing a reference vehicle with hydrogen as the fuel, a system arrangement and other key technological issues are addressed to realize a future passenger aircraft propulsion system using the fan concept. Also this paper introduces several propulsion system configurations for future passenger-aircraft propulsion systems with the fan system. Two promising arrangements of the combined system of gas turbine and fuel cell are introduced.