In the scope of the Clean Aviation (CA) Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) participates in the development of technologies for the future Ultra-Efficient Regional Aircraft (UERA) and Hybrid Electric Regional Architecture (HERA) UCB. In particular, it is anticipated that higher-efficiency aircraft concepts such as UERA and UCB will have higher aspect ratio wings, more flexible structures and, in general, higher aeroelastic phenomena, influencing concept design and production. To evaluate these novel features of future aircraft, it is necessary to adopt new conceptual loads and aeroelastics methods and tools.

In early design and feasibility studies of conventional aircraft, semiempirical methods based on similar aircraft can usually be used to estimate critical load magnitudes. However, as new designs differ considerably from existing aircraft, model-based analysis is required from the early design stages. In this paper, the UCB conceptual loads model is presented as a parametric conceptual loads loop, where early design in the CA HERFUSE project has benefited from a full flight and ground conceptual loads database. In addition, the different methods and approaches followed for model property estimation will be reviewed.

In summary, this parametric definition of the loads model contributes to next-generation aircraft design by giving quick conclusions for different trade-off scenarios in geometry, mass, and structural properties. This allows us to reduce uncertainty in early design stages and to evaluate different configurations in an agile manner.