Airbus, together with partners from the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, has launched the LEIA project to develop and demonstrate a hybrid-electric energy architecture for the next generation of commercial aircraft.

The project’s full name is Large Scale Integration Demonstrator of Hybrid Electrical Architecture, and it focuses on high-voltage electrical power generation and distribution for advanced aircraft systems. Rather than concentrating primarily on electric propulsion, LEIA addresses the energy required to power other systems installed throughout the aircraft.

Supported by the European Union’s Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, the project is intended to bridge the gap between the development of individual electrical components and their integration at aircraft level. Its objective is to increase the maturity of these technologies and prepare them for future installation and certification on regional and short-to-medium-range aircraft.

“Our progress in developing hybrid-electric technologies and our move into the LEIA demonstrator marks a pivotal shift in how we design the future of flight. By moving to integrated, intelligent hybrid-electric architectures, we are actively laying the physical and digital foundation for the next generation of aircraft,” said Karim Mokaddem, Head of Aircraft of Tomorrow Research and Technology at Airbus.

According to Mokaddem, the future of aviation will depend not only on new energy sources, but also on the broader systems required to manage their generation, distribution and use throughout the aircraft.

LEIA builds on the SWITCH project, which focused on the development of hybrid-electric powertrain subsystems. A key milestone was reached in July, when Collins Aerospace completed integrated laboratory testing of systems developed in cooperation with Pratt & Whitney, GKN Aerospace and MTU Aero Engines.

The tested subsystems, which operated alongside simulated aircraft and engine systems during laboratory trials, will now be transferred to Airbus’ Sustainable Technology and Engineering Projects laboratory in Ottobrunn, Germany.

There, Airbus will conduct aircraft-level integration testing, including battery interfacing, the evaluation of design solutions and the development and validation of energy-management systems.

As part of the project, Airbus will integrate a range of advanced electrical components, including scalable motor-generators, next-generation electronic controllers and electrical power distribution equipment. These components will be tested together with other aircraft systems to validate their interaction under conditions designed to replicate future operational applications.

The testing programme is expected to culminate in a major ground demonstration in 2027.

SWITCH and LEIA form part of Airbus’ broader cooperation within the Clean Aviation programme, which is targeting electrification technologies for regional and short-to-medium-range aircraft. The long-term objective of developing more-electric aircraft systems is to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to Airbus, the LEIA project includes AVL, Collins Aerospace, the European Aerospace Science Network, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Liebherr Aerospace, Lynxeo, the Netherlands Aerospace Centre, Safran, SAFT, the University of Warwick and Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.