An aircraft that can transport between approximately 100-130 passengers, and is intended for short and medium haul flights can be considered to be a Regional Aircraft. The challenge is to improve the passenger experience so that regional aircraft offer a comparable level of inflight comfort, free from noise and vibration, with a comfort level comparable or better than today’s modern jets and with a reliability of service well beyond today’s service into small and regional airports.

An aircraft that can transport between approximately 30 and 100 passengers, and is intended for short and medium haul flights can be considered to be a Regional Aircraft. The challenge is to improve the passenger experience so that regional aircraft offer a comparable level of inflight comfort, free from noise and vibration, with a comfort level comparable or better than today’s modern jets and with a reliability of service well beyond today’s service into small and regional airports. The global strategy of the REG IADP is to integrate and validate, at a/c level, advanced technologies for regional and multi-missions aircraft, so as to drastically de-risk their integration on future products. The goal is to accelerate the innovation enabling regional and multi-missions vehicle products and services that will bring significantly environmental and socio-economic benefits as soon as they are technically and economically viable.

The aim of HERFUSE proposal is to design innovative fuselage and empennages suitable for the future Hybrid-Electric Regional aircraft (HER) that will contribute to the overall target to reduce Green House Gases (GHG) emissions. HERFUSE will study the challenges on fuselage and empennages layout, material, components, manufacturing and assembly derived by integration of the relevant fuselage systems for HER as defined in the SRIA for a Hybrid-Electric Regional Aircraft and in HER-01 topic. HERFUSE integrates features and components necessary to regional hybrid-electric propulsion and complementary systems as well as improves weight, durability, aerodynamic efficiency and operational issues. The technologies and solutions matured in this project shall be aligned and feed with models, analyses and actual test data HERA project on regional aircraft (HORIZON-JU-CLEAN-AVIATION-2022-01-TRA-01). HERFUSE technologies, manufacturing and assembly of critical components will make feasible achieving the targeted performance gains of HER enablers such as low GHG energy sources (batteries and fuel cells), their storage (probable liquid in hydrogen case), their distribution and management, operational and safety features, thermal management provisions, electrical and thermal insulation. Technical solutions set by the HERFUSE will contribute then to the overall target and studies performed at aircraft level in HERA to reduce emissions. Namely, HERFUSE integration requirements will be concurrent and complementary to the aircraft-level ones set into HERA.