Design innovation for electrically powered and hybrid-electric aircraft is accelerating rapidly. While there are many potential benefits of electric aircraft and hydrogen technologies, not all air service can be replaced by electrically powered aircraft in the near term.
The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Research Report 236: Preparing Your Airport for Electric Aircraft and Hydrogen Technologies offers an introduction to the emerging electric aircraft industry, gives estimates of potential market growth, and provides guidance to help airports estimate the potential impacts of electric aircraft on their facilities and to be prepared to accommodate them.
A series of appendices provides details on the assumptions and methods used in the research as well as helpful references for airport planning.
Accompanying this report is a toolkit (including instructions for how to use the toolkit) that includes a database of more than 100 electric aircraft and may be used by airports to estimate future electric power requirements at their airport based on local characteristics, such as climate, aviation activity levels, and existing electrical demand.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Preparing Your Airport for Electric Aircraft and Hydrogen Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26512.
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