AATT_AACES2050_RFI_v5.9.2022_SAM.pdf

Request for Information

NASA/Langley Research Center (LaRC) is hereby soliciting information from industry regarding mid-century commercial aviation relating to: future scenario development, to include external geopolitical and economic forces and definitions of “success” for a sustainable aviation future state; market assessments for 2045-2055 entry-into-service (EIS) products; key vehicle and system level metrics of interest; and enabling technologies and aircraft concepts (those currently under development and those not currently under development) deemed to be in the critical path of success.

To help shape future Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) research, the Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) project within the Advanced Air Vehicles Program (AAVP) is planning to release a Request for Proposal (RFP) in government Fiscal Year 2023 for aircraft concept studies targeting subsonic commercial transport designs consistent with EIS in the mid-century timeframe. The objective of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather industry input to determine the appropriate focus and scope of these planned future studies. These studies are expected to be similar to the studies funded by the Subsonic Fixed Wing project in 2008, which were focused on subsonic commercial transports with 2030-2035 EIS.1,2 The results of these past studies were used to identify key technology areas for NASA investment and greatly influenced the current content of NASA’s subsonic transport research and technology portfolio and the Sustainable Flight National Partnership (SFNP). Of particular interest for this RFI is the role of sustainability in the design and operation of subsonic commercial transports in the 2045-2055 timeframe and how the parameters of the upcoming concept studies should be defined to appropriately address the challenges that will be faced by aviation.

In June 2021, NASA ARMD announced the establishment of the Sustainable Flight National Partnership (SFNP)3. The goal of the SFNP is to partner with industry, academia, and other government agencies to accelerate the development of technologies to address the aviation community’s aggressive carbon reduction and sustainable aviation goals. Specifically, the SFNP is currently focused on maturing key technologies to enable a 25-30% reduction in fuel consumption for the next generation of single-aisle transport aircraft entering service in the 2030s. These technologies include advanced small core engine technologies, ultra-high efficiency long and slender wings, advanced composite structures for high-rate manufacturing, and high-power megawatt-class electrified powertrains. Although critical to realizing performance and efficiency gains for a next generation, single-aisle aircraft, these four areas alone cannot solve aviation’s future sustainability challenges.

1 The original solicitation for the SFW studies is available at:

https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/viewrepositorydocument/cmdocumentid=135618/solicitationId=%7B545 BE1FC-F72A-4A96-EAD3-24E2FA1F97F8%7D/viewSolicitationDocument=1/ROA- 2008_Amend%202_Append_A_2.pdf 2 Phase I final reports from the SFW studies can be obtained from the NASA Technical Report Server (ntrs.nasa.gov) by searching report numbers: NASA/CR-2010-216691, NASA/CR-2010-216794/VOL1, NASA/CR-

2010-216794/VOL2, NASA/CR-2010-216798/REVA, NASA/CR-2011-216847

3 https://www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch/nasa-aims-for-climate-friendly-aviation

While NASA continues to maintain focus on the maturation of these SFNP technologies, it is important to begin setting the research agenda for the subsequent generations of commercial transports as well. The U.S. Aviation Climate Action Plan4 issued in November 2021 establishes the aggressive goal of net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the U.S. aviation sector by 2050, including life cycle carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions. This plan focuses on aviation combustion CO2 emissions and well-to-tank life cycle GHG emissions (CO2, N2O and CH4), but also includes other climate impacts of aviation such as other emissions, noise, local air quality, and more. NASA is beginning to investigate what technologies and aircraft concepts may be important in the 2045- 2055 timeframe to help contribute to these aggressive sustainability goals for 2050 and beyond, and seeks input from the broader community. Consequently, the primary motivation for AATT’s planned aircraft concept studies is to better define critical technology and aircraft concepts for mid-century aviation.

It is anticipated that sustainability will continue to play an increasing role in aircraft design and operations in the 2040s and beyond. Adapting the viewpoint of the Brundtland Commission5, sustainability can be broadly viewed as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In the context of aviation, sustainability can be multifaceted, including factors such as the renewability of the energy source used, the environmental impacts of the operations, land use impacts of the ground infrastructure, and the recyclability of the materials used to manufacture the vehicles. Although aviation is currently a relatively small contributor to global GHG emissions and other environmental issues, historically aviation has had a strong growth rate, and it is estimated that in 2050 ten billion passengers will fly twenty-two trillion revenue passenger kilometers. Flown using today’s fleet and operational efficiency this activity would require approximately twice the amount of fuel used in 2019 (currently provided primarily from non-renewable sources), generate approximately twice the amount of CO2, and have other negative impacts on global climate (e.g., contrails) and local air quality (e.g., NOx emissions). Great advancements have been made since the beginning of commercial aviation to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impacts; however, increases in air travel demand have consistently outpaced improvements, leading to increasing environmental impacts with time. A future in which aviation can meet society’s sustainability expectations without placing constraints on demand will only be possible through a fundamental re-examination of traditional air transport design and operation paradigms.

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit information regarding mid-century commercial aviation relating to: future scenario development, to include external geopolitical and economics forces and definitions of “success” for a sustainable aviation future state;

market assessments for 2045-2055 EIS products; key vehicle and system level metrics of interest; and enabling technologies and aircraft concepts (those currently

4 https://www.faa.gov/sustainability/aviation-climate-action-plan 5 Brundtland, G. (1987) Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common

Future. United Nations General Assembly Document A/42/427 under development and those not currently under development) deemed to be in the critical path of success.

NASA seeks responses to the questions below. Partial responses are welcome.

Responses may be used to aid NASA in development of a future RFP. NASA may use a summary of responses to represent the community input without identifying individual responses.

1. Future Scenarios and Assumptions

a. What are the most important future geopolitical, energy, and technology development and adoption scenarios (fleet level) that should be considered in driving aviation research?

b. How should NASA define “sustainable aviation” as it relates to a mid-century EIS?

i. Should sustainability be limited to the impact of combustive emissions?

ii. Which emissions should be considered in sustainability and in which priority?

iii. Should sustainability include economic impact?

iv. Should sustainability include broad environmental impact?

v. Should sustainability include societal impact?

vi. Should sustainability include noise impacts?

c. How does your organization define “zero emissions aviation” as it relates to a mid-century EIS? (i.e., in-flight CO2 emissions; in-flight total emissions (CO2, H2O, NOx, etc.); lifecycle CO2 emissions; etc.)

d. How does your organization define “zero impact aviation” as it relates to a mid-century EIS?

2. Market Assessments

a. For a mid-century EIS, what will the most important design mission and requirements be for commercial transport aircraft?

b. For a mid-century EIS, what class of aircraft will dominate domestic and global markets in terms of operations, revenue passenger miles, and emissions?

c. What market factors will be most important to consider in the development of new aircraft products for the mid-century EIS aviation market?

d. How do these market factors influence the design and mission requirements for potential mid-century products?

3. Metrics of Interest

a. What are the most important vehicle-level metrics to assess the sustainability of a mid-century EIS commercial transport aircraft product?

b. What roles should fuel and energy consumption play in assessments of potential mid-century EIS aircraft concepts?

c. How should cost be considered in the assessment of the concepts?

d. How should cost be measured (e.g., Direct Operating Cost (DOC), etc.)?

e. What metrics should be considered for capturing technological progress associated with sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and other alternative fuel technologies that may be capable of drastically reducing lifecycle emissions while not reducing vehicle-level CO2 emissions appreciably?

f. What additional metrics may be necessary to measure total progress toward sustainability?

4. Technologies and Aircraft Concepts

a. Based on the responses to parts 1-3 described above, what vehicle-level, operations, and fuels technologies are deemed to be critical to achieving or making significant progress towards sustainable aviation in the mid-century EIS timeframe?

b. Based on the responses to parts 1-3 described above, what aircraft concepts and/or configurations are part of the critical solution path, or otherwise offer significant opportunity for achieving sustainable aviation in the mid-century EIS timeframe? Please consider both airframe and propulsion concepts.

c. What are the biggest challenge areas to be addressed in the next 15 years in order to realize the advanced technologies and aircraft concepts identified in parts a and b, and more broadly aviation sustainability goals?

d. What are the rough order of magnitude (ROM) development costs associated with bringing the advanced technologies and aircraft concepts identified in parts a and b through a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 demonstration to support a market product for a mid-century EIS?

e. What should NASA’s role be in the development of these advanced technologies and aircraft concepts?

Response Instructions

All responses shall be submitted electronically via email to Mercer Hurst at mercer.t.hurst@nasa.gov no later than 6:00 pm ET on 07/05/2022. The subject line for the submission should be “RFI Response for NASA AACES 2050: Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability.” Files may only be submitted in MS Word and should be no longer than 20 pages, single spaced with 12 pt. font.

Paper submissions will not be accepted. Phone calls will not be accepted.

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.

No solicitation/RFP exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation/RFP. If a solicitation/RFP is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

It is not NASA’s intent to publicly disclose respondents’ proprietary information obtained in response to this RFI. Proprietary and export-controlled information should be marked appropriately in your response. To the full extent that it is protected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations, information identified by a Respondent as “Proprietary or Confidential” will be kept confidential.

NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN ANY RFI

RESPONSE.

The Point of Contact (POC) for questions regarding this RFI is:

Mercer Hurst @ mercer.t.hurst@nasa.gov

Industry Day

NASA plans to conduct Industry Day meetings individually with respondents after the RFI response window closes. These meetings will provide an opportunity to discuss RFI responses and AATT’s plan to study aircraft concepts and technologies for the mid-century timeframe. NASA representatives will initiate coordination of these meetings with respondents.

mailto:mercer.t.hurst@nasa.gov