Feasibility study of innovative regional turboprop: an overview of the European project IRON

This paper deals with the research activities performed by the Design of Aircraft and Flight technologies group from the University of Naples Federico II within the European funded project IRON (Innovative turbopROp configuratioN). The research project is addressed to the feasibility study of an innovative high-capacity turboprop which is supposed to be competitive with respect to regional jets on short/medium range. This paper wants to provide some design considerations that must be addressed to design a high capacity turboprop, and to illustrate the configuration assessment through a Multi-Disciplinary Analysis and Optimization process performed to design such an innovative platform. A three-lifting surface configuration has been identified as the most promising layout for such a regional aircraft. Moreover, this paper wants to focus on some criticalities and design challenges that have been faced into designing a three-lifting platform.