LEIA Project Advances Hybrid-Electric Power For Aircraft Systems

Airbus and multiple partners have begun new work aimed at using hybrid-electric power for non-propulsive purposes on next generation airliners. The Large Scale Integration Demonstrator of Hybrid Electrical Architecture (LEIA) project will focus on how to generate and distribute electrical power for various onboard systems, such as cockpit avionics, satellite communications, cabin lighting and air conditioning, and galleys for warming food

LEIA, which has funding from the European Union Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking is intended to prepare high-voltage systems for future integration and certification, with Airbus explaining this week that the work will bridge the gap “between component-level innovation and aircraft-level maturity.” The project builds on the earlier SWITCH program for hybrid-electric powertrain sub-systems, which concluded earlier this month when Collins Aerospace completed integrated laboratory testing as part of research and development efforts also involving Pratt & Whitney, GKN Aerospace and MTU Aero Engines.

In addition to Airbus, the LEIA project also involved the following partners: AVL, Collins Aerospace, the European Aerospace Science Network, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Liebherr Aerospace, Lynxeo, the Netherlands Aerospace Centre, Safran, SAFT, the University of Warwick in the UK, and Poland’s Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.