Sustainable Biz Magazine - Magazine - Page 33
Deutsche Aircraft completes extensive
wind-tunnel testing campaign for the
328ALPHA technology demonstrator.
D
eutsche Aircraft recently completed
an extensive wind-tunnel testing
campaign for the 328ALPHA
technology demonstrator.
The 328ALPHA is a one-off modification to
an existing D328® airframe. The objective of
this programme is to evaluate, develop and
flight-test promising technologies that will
reduce aviation emissions, such as electric
propulsion, fuel cells and liquid hydrogen
storage.
The successful completion of the wind
tunnel test campaign marks an important
milestone for future flight. This test was
conducted in the context of the LuFo VI-I
(Luftfahrtforschungsprogramm) Civil
Aviation Research programme and is
partially funded by the German Federal
Ministry of Economics and Climate Action
(Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und
Klimaschutz or BMWK). With the LuFo
VI, the BMWK is striving to develop a
sustainable, economical and efficient air
transport system of the future.
The wind tunnel test aims to validate nextgeneration propulsion systems
The objective of this powered-model test
was to validate the overall aerodynamic
integration of a next-generation electric
propulsion system that is being developed
with our project partners. This 9-week
campaign evaluated various combinations
of propulsive power, stability, control and
performance parameters over the expected
flight envelope. The outcome of this test
confirms prior analysis conducted using
state-of-the-art Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) and will allow Deutsche
Aircraft to refine an engineering flight
simulator.
The 328ALPHA was also presented at the
E2FLIGHT Emission Free and Electric
Flight Conference in September 2023,
which was organised by the German
Aerospace Center (DLR) and University of
Stuttgart. Chief Engineer for Future Projects
at Deutsche Aircraft, Riaan Myburgh,
presented the latest developments for the
328ALPHA demonstrator at the conference.
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