(Cologne) – The German Aerospace Center (DLR), together with the American aerospace agency NASA, organized the cross-border “Design Challenge” for students at technical universities. The task was to design a short- and medium-haul aircraft for 150 passengers that could be operational by 2035. Scenarios for a 600 and 2.000 kilometer flight distance had to be taken into account, for which an overall energy balance had to be created.
RWTH Aachen provides the winning team
The RWTH Aachen team won the German part of this year's competition with the design of a hydrogen aircraft called “HyZero”. “The students have given considerable impetus to what the climate-neutral air traffic of tomorrow can look like and how versatile hydrogen can be used for this,” said DLR CEO Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla.
In their work, the winners combined a lift-generating double fuselage with deformable, ultra-smooth laminar wings, according to the project description. A hybrid drive train enables the direct combustion of hydrogen as well as the generation of electricity via fuel cells. 
A hydrogen tank in the rear provides the sustainably sourced fuel. An additional engine at the rear uses the boundary layer effect for particularly efficient drive. Overall, this aircraft will require around 40 percent less energy than a comparable conventionally powered reference aircraft in 2035. This design shows that “the future of climate-neutral aviation lies with aircraft that consume particularly little energy, which is also provided from renewable sources.” . The teams:
- HyZero, RWTH Aachen: Sina Bahm, Lena Meinberg, Tobias Welsch, Simon Kotlarov, Malte Seibt, Johann Stürken
- HeRa, TU Dresden: Marc Rodekamp, Daniel Helmert, Jonathan Bölk, Luckas Bach, Markus Lötzsch, Thomas Hanl
- CHANGE, TU Berlin: Kotayba Al Rashwany, Ramón Beck, Florian Feldhahn, Lennart Kracke, Kristof Miertsch, Jan Frederik Nittka
- Hy2Sky, University of Stuttgart: Arian Mojaabi, Bianca Weber, Codrin Ciul, Maximilian Jansen, Samarth Srivastava, Shashank Sharma
- MANTA, TU Hamburg: Ahmet Akyüz, Eduardo Zegarra Berodt, Ghassen Hajiri, Philip Salmang, Rhea Shah, Xiaowei Zhu
On the German side, 2021 students from five universities took part in the NASA/DLR Design Challenge in 30. On the American side there is also a double-digit number of participants from various universities, it is said. A winning team will be chosen on both sides.
As soon as face-to-face events are possible again, the German winners will show their work alongside the American winners of the competition at a joint event with the American aerospace agency NASA. The award-winning teams also have the opportunity to present their results at the German Aerospace Congress. According to current planning, this will take place from August 31st to September 2nd in the Congress Center Bremen.
deep link
https://www.dlr.de/content/de/artikel/news/2021/03/20210825_wasserstofflugzeug-hyzero-ist-gewinner-der-nasa-dlr-design-challenge
https://www.dlr.de/content/de/artikel/nachwuchs/nasa-dlr-design-challenge.html
Photo above
The winning model © RWTH Aachen / HyZero
Photo middle
RWTH Aachen team © RWTH Aachen / HyZero
