01.1 - Aircraft Design and Integrated Systems (Theory, Methods and Tools)
OPTIMAL CONCEPTUAL DESIGN AND UPGRADE STRATEGIES FOR EVTOL AIRCRAFT UNDER EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES
M.A. Hariansyah¹, C. Reyner¹, R.P. Liem, Imperial College London, United Kingdom; P.S. Palar, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia; ¹The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR of China
Coupling MDO with technology forecasting, this study mitigates eVTOL obsolescence. Results identify battery specific energy as the early design driver, shifting to powertrain specific power later. Using a new future-aware metric, we show non-uniform upgrade schedules (clustered early) outperform uniform ones by 22%, offering a robust framework for long-lifecycle product design under evolving tech.
DOI: 10.71945/icas2026_0631