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Introduction
Opposing global provocation, the United Nations has developed 17 sustainable goals to be achieved up to 2030; one major target is addressing the climate change conflict urgently (United Nations, 2022). Aviation industry accounted for at least 2.4% of greenhouse gases emission in 2018 (Graver et al., 2019). Concerns have arisen following the prediction of 4–5% annual growth in air traffic demand consequently fuel consumption (Ansell and Haran, 2020). For the purpose of emission reduction and efficiency enhancement, more efforts moving toward the electrification of aviation industry is inevitable through the introduction of modern architecture.
During the past decades, successful actions have been undertaken mainly by using two main concepts of electrification. The first technology is More Electric Aircraft (MEA), focusing on replacing systems that mostly run by hydraulic, pneumatic and electromechanical sub-systems, with on-board loads using electrical sources. Obviously, there are tremendous advantages combined with MEA in comparison with conventional aircrafts; chief among them are improving reliability and efficiency simultaneously and reduction in fuel consumption, emission as well as operational cost (Xu et al., 2019).
The second technology is All Electric Aircraft (AEA), in which additional usage of electrical alternatives instead of conventional forms, power of propulsion, also produced by other sources of energy such as electrochemical batteries and or fuel cells, bringing more opportunities to those resulted by MEA, such as zero fuel consumption, no emission and even lower operational costs (Barzkar and Ghassemi, 2020).
In line with the technological progress, the concept of electric propulsion is considerably attractive for both researchers and industry pioneers. Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens are collaborating on a project “E-Fan X”, regional 100 passenger capacity, 2MW electrical power train; National Aeronautics and Space Administration is working on another 56MW, 300 passenger capacity; and “Modular Approach to Hybrid Electric Propulsion” (MAHEPA) project is supported by the European Union (EU), all aiming to make skies greener. However, despite the overall agreement on the benefits of electrification of the propulsion system, there are some challenges involved with the estimated horizon of industry leaders achieving their designated road maps. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the road map for aircraft technology to 2050 is depicted in Figure 1.
The main goal of industry leaders involving in close competition...