Validation of Enhanced Heat Dissipation Options in More Electric Aircraft Under Flight Conditions

With the increased electrification of aircraft, the thermal management of associated heat loads becomes more and more of a challenge. While a classical airline aircraft typically has a system thermal emission in the same range as the heat generated by passengers, more innovative hybrid electric aircraft designs and hydrogen-powered aircraft can require up to 1 MW of cooling, which is two orders of magnitude larger than the heat load of the transported passengers. For the development of such systems, dedicated laboratory test environments are necessary to pre-assess technologies and flight conditions in research and maturation projects. The Flight Test Facility is one such facility, and this paper will outline some of the thermal tests performed in the past and planned enhancements of the testing capabilities.