Power Management for Hybrid Electric Aircraft

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the electrification of aviation propulsion systems has captured growing interest as a pathway toward reducing carbon emissions, enhancing energy efficiency, and enabling novel aircraft architectures. Among these developments, hybrid electric aircraft, those combining conventional fuel-based power with one or more forms of electric energy storage or generation, offer a promising intermediate step between today’s fleet and a fully electric future. However, managing the synergy between heterogeneous power sources, ensuring high reliability, and optimizing performance across flight phases pose substantial technical challenges.

This Special Issue is dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding and technological development of hybrid-electric propulsion systems since the integration of these energy sources requires innovative architectures, real-time control algorithms, and adaptive management strategies capable of dynamically balancing power flows, maximizing efficiency, and ensuring system robustness under varying flight and environmental conditions. These developments also have profound implications for aircraft design and integration, as power and energy management directly affect the sizing of propulsion components, thermal systems, and structural layouts. Indeed, a critical cross-cutting challenge is thermal management to effectively dissipate the generated heat and maintain performance, safety, and longevity. Advanced cooling concepts, integrated thermal networks, and predictive control are essential to prevent thermal runaway and to ensure stable operation across transient and steady-state regimes. Furthermore, simulation and digital-twin methodologies, enabling high-fidelity and multi-domain modeling of electrical, thermal, and mechanical interactions. These tools are key to exploring design trade-offs, supporting hardware-in-the-loop testing, and developing reliable power management strategies for different classes of hybrid-electric aircraft.

This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for the dissemination of state-of-the-art methods and to identify open challenges for future generations of hybrid electric propulsion systems. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Hybridization strategies combining batteries and fuel cells
• Power management architectures and control algorithms
• Energy optimization across flight missions
• Thermal management and cooling system design
• Multiphysics and real-time simulation frameworks
• Digital-twin and model-based system design
• Reliability, safety, and certification aspects
• Experimental validation and hardware-in-the-loop applications

Dr. Giuseppe Palaia
Guest Editor

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• power management
• hybrid electric
• fuel cell
• multidisciplinary design optimization
• hybrid powertrain architectures
• sustainable aviation
• aircraft design