Small air transport aircraft entry requirements evoked by FlightPath 2050

Europe has adopted the Flight Path 2050 (FP2050) challenge demanding that by 2050, 90 per cent of the travelers are able to reach door-to-door destinations in Europe within four hours. A hypothesis can be formulated that without the Small Air Transport (SAT) system, optimized for short distances and for multiple but narrow passenger flows, this challenge cannot be met.

This paper defines design goals and necessary research focused on small aircraft concepts, as a required condition to fulfil the FP2050 challenge “90 per cent d2d 4h”.

The new small aircraft concepts have been defined as SAT Aircraft Family Program. Three demonstrators with common modules could be proposed: two using the same turboprop engine (first, one engine, 9 passengers; second, two engines, 19 passengers) and third demonstrator could be with a diesel hybrid engine.

The SAT Aircraft Family Program depends on demand optimized for specific regional features (passenger flows, passenger time value spectrum and infrastructure) and a set of matured technologies as a result of Clean Sky 2 (CS2) devoted to SAT.

This practical implications consist of developing on SAT technologies in CS2, deploying the demonstrators by the small aviation industry and launching an SAT system pilot phase.

FP2050 has changed the approach to a citizen-oriented from an atomized technologies taxonomy-oriented one. The challenge “90 per cent d2d 4h” also covers the needs of remote regions. This niche could be filled by the SAT system using the small aircrafts family.

The paper value is in defining entry requirements, answering how to build the SAT Aircraft Family Program satisfying the FP2050 challenge “90 per cent d2d 4h”.