Flight Energy Consumption Modeling and Analysis for Advanced Air Mobility

This paper presents the derivation of flight energy consumption models for both package-delivery drones and passengers- and cargo-delivery aircraft, such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, in the presence of wind. A comprehensive analysis of flight energy consumption is presented in terms of the energy-per-distance (EPD) metric versus the vehicle velocity with different key parameters, such as eVTOL manufacturers, vehicle weights, wind magnitude, and directions. This study aims to show the impact of these key factors on flight energy consumption and the impact of single-vehicle flight energy consumption on infrastructure planning and AAM operations at scale. Real flight data are used for the EPD analysis of a package-delivery drone. Vehicle parameters of state-of-the-art eVTOL vehicles are used for the EPD analysis for large eVTOL vehicles.