Impact of Hybrid, Electric, and Hydrogen Propulsion in U.S. Commercial Aviation Fleet

This research aims to map out the effectiveness of deploying innovative propulsion technologies, i.e. synthetic aviation fuel, hybrid-electric, all-electric and hydrogen-electric propulsion within the U.S. commercial fleet. This is done through a bottom-up approach by modeling a fleet of retrofitted commercial aircraft with innovative propulsion systems and by projecting their deployment on all U.S. domestic commercial flights, using the 2019 BTS T-100 database as reference. The study evaluates the environmental and operational impacts under various technology proliferation scenarios between 2030 and 2050 by considering future passenger demand and aircraft production trends in the fleet replacement dynamics.