Suitability Assessment and Potential Use Case Definition for the Application of Electric Energy Carriers in Electrified Aircraft
Maurice Lucas DOERNTE, Florian FRANKE, Stefan KAZULA
Abstract. The emerging electrification of aircraft aims to extensively reduce emissions. One near term mitigation strategy can be the implementation of electrical energy storage systems (EESSs) such as batteries, flywheels and supercapacitors to power subsystems of more electric aircraft. However, these EESSs are subjected to various advantages and drawbacks. Therefore, this study provides a detailed assessment of the suitability of integrating these systems into aircraft applications. For this purpose, aircraft design criteria relevant for the analysis are derived and their relative importance is determined through pairwise comparison. To ensure comparability among the subsystems, they are categorized based on their operating time. The subsequent rating of the EESSs suggests, that supercapacitors may be best suited to short- and medium-duration operations, while batteries seem to be more beneficial for long-duration applications. However, flywheels appear to be unsuitable for either. For further assessing the feasibility of integrating EESSs in aircraft, the weight penalty associated to each system can be investigated.
Keywords
More Electric Aircraft, Electrical Energy Storage System, Battery, Flywheel, Supercapacitor, Aircraft Subsystems, Suitability Analysis, Sustainable Aviation
Published online 7/20/2026, 6 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Maurice Lucas DOERNTE, Florian FRANKE, Stefan KAZULA, Suitability Assessment and Potential Use Case Definition for the Application of Electric Energy Carriers in Electrified Aircraft, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 589-594, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-105
The article was published as article 105 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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