Project summary

The AURORA project aims to generate design criteria and methods for designing Innovative Air Mobility solutions powered by Fuel Cell Systems for which there are no clear nor feasible pure battery-powered alternatives due to weight, endurance, or range constraints.

Motivation and background

The aviation industry plays a crucial role in our interconnected world, facilitating global trade, fostering tourism, and enabling people to connect across vast distances. However, this vital industry is also a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, with aviation responsible for a substantial portion of anthropogenic radiative forcing. In this context, the development of net zero aeronautical technologies in Europe emerges as a pivotal undertaking, offering the promise of reducing carbon emissions and ushering in a more sustainable future for air travel.

Objectives

The general objective of project AURORA is to establish design criteria and methodologies for Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) solutions powered by Fuel Cell Systems, specifically targeting scenarios where pure battery-powered alternatives are unfeasible due to weight, range, or endurance constraints. To achieve this, the proposal defines the following specific goals:

SO1–SO4: Develop design criteria and methods for the general aircraft architecture, the propulsion system, the power plant system, and the energy storage system.
SO5: Formulate a virtual vehicle simulation platform to design the whole IAM/AAM solution, simulate full missions, and optimise control strategies.
SO6: Identify optimal aircraft designs for at least three specific missions involving varied payloads and ranges, both manned and unmanned.
SO7: Benchmark the proposed solutions against pure-battery and hybrid internal combustion engine power plants in terms of mission capabilities and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

Methodology

The project adopts a computational and parallelised engineering approach that integrates advanced modelling, simulations, and experimental testing across nine interconnected work packages. The operational methodology is structured as follows:

Problem Definition & Initial Layout (WP1): Detailed definition of four specific mission scenarios and the initial architectural design candidates.
Parallel Design Iterations (WP3–WP6): Sizing, parametric space optimisation, and closed-loop evaluation of the aircraft architecture, propulsion systems, power generation, and energy storage.
Virtual Platform Development & Simulation (WP2 & WP7): Integration of a preliminary design tool and a high-fidelity mission simulation platform incorporating polarisation curves, fuel cell degradation models, and equivalent consumption minimisation strategies.
Experimental Validation (WP2 & WP7): Wind tunnel tests utilising advanced experimental techniques, alongside steady-state and transient fuel cell stack evaluation using a dedicated 200 kW facility.
Alternative Benchmarking & LCA (WP8): Sizing alternative battery-electric or hybrid configurations for performance comparisons, coupled with life cycle emissions tracking using state-of-the-art and industry-standard software.

Infrastructure

CMT-UPV “Professor Francisco Payri” Wind Tunnel (2.8 x 2.8 x 22 m, up to 33 m/s).
Fuell cell laboratories, including a full-system stand with 200 kW of capacity.
HPC Clusters for high-fidelity simulations.

latest posts

May 26, 2026	Second AURORA Student Open Week
Apr 16, 2026	Dora Naya Pons presents her Auroa TFG
Apr 16, 2026	UPV-KTH in-person meeting

selected publications

Journal
Numerical Analysis on the Influence of Rotor Configuration on Quad-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Performance

Brendan H. P. Mullen, Pau Varela Martínez, Jorge García-Tíscar, and Luis Miguel García-Cuevas

Drones, 2026

Abs DOI Bib PDF

While fixed, unactuated rotor tilt is increasingly utilised in commercial multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), its impact on forward flight performance remains poorly documented in the literature. The current work addresses this gap in the literature by systematically quantifying the performance trade-offs of rotor tilt across various airspeeds. Furthermore, a novel rotor configuration is proposed to mitigate some of the tilted rotor configuration’s inherent drawbacks. The different configurations are evaluated using a computationally affordable numerical approach that combines steady-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, a simple proportional–integral (P–I) trimming algorithm, and actuator disk rotor modelling (ADM). The findings reveal that the aircraft’s power requirements can be reduced by more than 29% for airspeeds greater than 20 m/s, while its range can be increased by up to 22% with the alternative rotor configurations. However, the modifications were found to have a significantly lesser impact on endurance, as only a 2.9% increase is noted at best.
@article{drones10020105, author = {Mullen, Brendan H. P. and Varela Martínez, Pau and García-Tíscar, Jorge and García-Cuevas, Luis Miguel}, title = {Numerical Analysis on the Influence of Rotor Configuration on Quad-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Performance}, journal = {Drones}, volume = {10}, year = {2026}, number = {2}, article-number = {105}, issn = {2504-446X}, doi = {10.3390/drones10020105}, }
Conference
Analytical Prediction of Propeller Thrust for Lift-Plus-Cruise Tilt-Rotor Configurations with Wind Tunnel Validation

Néstor Alcañiz-Brull, Pau Varela, Jorge García-Tíscar, and Luis Miguel García-Cuevas

Engineering Proceedings, 2026

Abs DOI Bib PDF

Continuous population growth will lead to further expansion and densification of urban environments. In this context, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) has emerged as a new transportation solution through the use of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, more precisely, configurations such as lift-plus-cruise tilt-rotors. During the conceptual design phase, propeller design methodologies commonly reported in the literature rely on vortex-based approaches or actuator disk theory. However, the accuracy of these methods strongly depends on the inflow angle and operating conditions. This paper introduces an analytical model to predict propeller thrust at a 90° inflow angle (edgewise flight), based on a correction of the thrust under axial flight conditions and the propeller geometry evaluated at 75% span. The approach relies on local velocity and angle of attack estimations derived from classical Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT) with an additional correction to account for stall effects at high angles of attack. This capability is particularly relevant for modeling lift-plus-cruise tilt-rotor configurations cruise phase during early design stages while maintaining minimal computational cost. The proposed model is validated against wind tunnel measurements for several propellers tested at different global pitch angles, varying from 0 m/s to 9.1 m/s of windspeed and 1300 to 6200 rpms, demonstrating the applicability of the developed formulation for blades with twist angles up to 16°.
@article{engproc2026142003, author = {Alcañiz-Brull, Néstor and Varela, Pau and García-Tíscar, Jorge and García-Cuevas, Luis Miguel}, title = {Analytical Prediction of Propeller Thrust for Lift-Plus-Cruise Tilt-Rotor Configurations with Wind Tunnel Validation}, journal = {Engineering Proceedings}, volume = {142}, year = {2026}, number = {1}, article-number = {3}, issn = {2673-4591}, doi = {10.3390/engproc2026142003}, }

Conference

Impact of the fuel cell propulsion system design on performance, durability, and environmental impact for advanced air mobility

R. Novella, J. Gómez-Soriano, M. López-Juárez, and D. Velasco-Pérez

In Aerospace Europe Conference (AEC) and Conference of the Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS), Dec 2025

Bib

@inproceedings{AURORA_AEC_2025,
  author = {Novella, R. and Gómez-Soriano, J. and López-Juárez, M. and Velasco-Pérez, D.},
  title = {Impact of the fuel cell propulsion system design on performance, durability, and environmental impact for advanced air mobility},
  booktitle = {Aerospace Europe Conference (AEC) and Conference of the Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS)},
  year = {2025},
  month = dec,
  address = {Turin, Italy},
}