Smarter air and thermal management for the more-electric aircraft

Every new electrical system added to an aircraft increases the amount of heat that must be managed.

For decades, cooling systems were primarily designed around the people onboard, providing conditioned air for the cabin and cockpit. With today’s aircraft, that job description has expanded.

Air and thermal management systems help regulate cabin conditions, electronics cooling, pressurization and heat removal across the aircraft. As modern platforms add more avionics, sensors, connectivity systems and power electronics, these systems are becoming increasingly important to aircraft performance, efficiency and reliability.

Cassie Matto, director of offering management for thermal management systems at Honeywell Aerospace, has watched the conversation change over the course of her career. One of the biggest shifts, she says, is where cooling demand is coming from.

Passenger comfort remains important, but air and thermal systems now also support radar, satellite communications, flight displays, onboard computing and the growing number of electronics that make modern aircraft possible. 

Managing that heat isn't as easy as making cooling systems larger.

Engineers must determine where and how much cooling is required, as well as how to deliver it without adding unnecessary weight or consuming more electrical power than the aircraft can provide. 

Those tradeoffs become even more pronounced on battery-powered advanced air mobility (AAM) platforms, where weight has a direct impact.

Matto also expects air and thermal systems to become more connected and capable as aircraft incorporate additional onboard processing. Those advances will introduce new cooling requirements for engineers to solve.

Earlier platforms relied heavily on engine bleed air to power environmental control systems. More-electric aircraft are expanding the use of electrically driven air and thermal management technologies that reduce reliance on bleed air while giving designers greater flexibility for cooling to be delivered where it's needed instead of where bleed air is available.

As cooling demands increase, engineering challenges are compounded by having to remove more heat without making the aircraft larger, heavier or less efficient.

Every additional heat exchanger, compressor, duct and cooling line competes for limited space onboard. At the same time, those systems consume aircraft electrical power that must be generated and managed elsewhere on the aircraft. 

Rather than optimizing each system independently, engineers are considering electrical power, environmental control and thermal management together from the beginning. Decisions made in one area can affect performance, efficiency and cooling capacity throughout the aircraft.

This is where high-density cooling systems become increasingly relevant. As aircraft carry more electronics in tighter spaces, compact and efficient cooling can help support avionics, mission systems and other heat-generating technologies without compromising aircraft design goals.

The challenge continues to evolve as aircraft platforms diversify. Commercial aircraft, defense applications and AAM platforms each bring different mission profiles, operating environments and cooling demands, requiring engineers to tailor solutions rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.

Engineers must anticipate thermal demands long before an aircraft enters service. 

For Matto, that's part of what makes air and thermal management such an engaging engineering challenge. Every new capability creates another design variable, requiring engineers to balance performance, efficiency, weight and available power for more capable, more-electric aircraft.

Our work in air and thermal management reflects that broader perspective. From conventional environmental control systems to integrated power and thermal management technologies and electrically driven cooling, we're helping manufacturers balance thermal requirements and changing variables across commercial, defense and AAM platforms.