2020, 37(5): 16-23.
Electric aircraft has the characteristics of zero pollution, low noise, etc. It doesn’t have any negative impacts on the environment. It represents one of the important directions of the research and development of aviation industry. Take-off weight is one of the important parameters of the aircraft, which directly serves the general layout, performance, load, features, and cost estimation, etc. Take-off weight estimation is not only a key part in the design process, but also one of the important work in the aircraft conceptual design. Because the weight of the electric aircraft remains unchanged in the flight, the method of parameters determination is different from the traditional fuel aircraft. According to characteristics of the electric power system and the battery, and the relevant design requirements of electric aircraft, the weight estimation methods of the electric power system and the battery were presented. Based on the related design parameters of electric aircraft in the conceptual design, and the each parts weight estimation formulas of electric aircraft, the weight estimation model of electric aircraft was established. A convergence value was obtained through iterative calculation, which was the take-off weight estimation value of electric aircraft. When the convergence value was putted in the each parts weight estimation formulas, the each parts weight estimation values would be obtained. Using an electric light sport aircraft as an example, the effectiveness of the method was verified.