Distributed Electrical Propulsion (DEP), is the concept of using multiple electrical motors spanned across an aircraft’s wingspan. By increasing the amount of motors and propellers, the total lift over
the wings increase significantly, while the drag only raises minimally. Current jet and personal planes consume large amount of fuel and emit both gaseous and noise pollution. A DEP plane avoids both these
issues by using electricity as its main energy source. Multiple smaller motors are more efficient and provide more lift than a conventional single or 3 prop planes. In an incredibly turbulent and competitive
time for airlines as legacy carriers are being challenged by younger budget carriers, operation costs will make the largest difference. The fluctuation of oil prices has always been one of the biggest concerns
for the aviation industry, as in 2019 fuel costs had accounted for 23.7% of the operating costs of the industry (International Air Transport Association, 2019). In the auto industry, studies of electric
vehicle costs have found an additional reduction in operation costs attributed to less maintenance needs of electric motor systems. Electric motor systems by design have fewer moving parts that need to be
serviced on a regular basis. It can be inferred that an electric motor system in an aircraft will see similar reductions in maintenance needs and costs in addition to their reduced fuel costs and dependencies
on oil price fluctuation.
In order to test this concept and contribute to its research, my senior design team and I designed, built, and tested a small-scale DEP aircraft over the span of one year. Along with investigating the concept
of DEP, the purpose of this project was to apply the skills and methodologies my team and I had learned throughout our aerospace and mechanical engineering degree programs and go through a formal engineering
development lifecycle.