Electric aviation expert makes use of PLM software for achieving crucial certification
Swedish electric aviation specialist and aircraft manufacturer, Heart Aerospace has decided to use the “Capital” software product, which is part of the Siemens Xcelerator Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) portfolio of software and services from Siemens Digital Industries Software to support the company’s design, development and certification requirements for its zero emission electric aircraft.
Siemens Capital will provide electrical and electronic (E/E) system design and support to help Heart Aerospace to address the market and regulatory demands of escalating performance and commercial certification requirements.
Technical Challenges
The move towards more sustainable aviation through the use of electric aircraft presents significant technical and regulatory challenges.
As part of the extensive electrification in the company’s aircraft, Heart Aerospace must address the complexity of the Electrical Wiring Interconnect System (EWIS) while also addressing electrical system compliance risk. In this respect, the Capital tool’s strong compliance range of functions can help Heart Aerospace to make use of automation and digital data continuity to facilitate faster regulatory compliance. This was a key reason for selecting the Capital software element of Xcelerator PLM from Siemens.
According to Anthony Nicoli, Senior Director for Aerospace & Defence at Siemens Digital Industries Software, the adoption of Capital from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio by Heart Aerospace gives the company the advantage that is inherent in digitised E/E system development right from the very start.
“To successfully compete for air transport routes, electric aircraft must achieve demanding performance goals using power and weight optimised E/E systems that are fully certified. Siemens is excited to help Heart Aerospace to accelerate its aircraft design to meet both performance and certification requirements,” he says.
John Rader, the Section Lead Electrical Wiring Interconnect System (EWIS) Engineer at Heart Aerospace explains that as a young company with a new project, Heart Aerospace decided to adopt Capital software, which was the only tool that the company evaluated that turned out to be able to support the creation of electrical and avionic system deliverables and seamlessly flows them downstream into the physical products of the EWIS for each development phase of the aircraft.
“The improvement in workflow, especially when considering that configuration management within Capital is both strong and intuitive, provides us with the ability to focus on the engineering that was required and not on the tool. With sophisticated additional analysis models such as voltage drop calculation and the great support available, Heart Aerospace is confident we made the best choice,” he says.
The company’s aircraft is the fully electric ES-30 regional passenger aircraft with four engines and zero emissions. The company’s mission is to produce the greenest, most affordable and most accessible aircraft. To achieve this requires a strong focus on technology and certification..
The Xcelerator PLM suite from Siemens Digital Industries Software is designed to assist in the digital transformation of companies using software, hardware and services. The software combined with digital twinning capabilities enable companies to optimise their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to develop their designs through prototyping, testing and certification into sustainable products.