HIRF and Lightning certification of electric and hybrid aircraft

With the development of hybrid and electric VTOL air taxis, we are called to support an emerging technology that has an amazing impact on the way people are transported, enabling safer and greener urban mobility. Many challenges need to be solved, such as the use of composite materials, hybrid and fully electric propulsion, passenger safety and air traffic management. Furthermore, VTOL aircraft must be certified for HIRF and lightning. This presentation reviews the standards to be applied, and discusses the challenges of VTOL vehicles with regard to the lightning and HIRF environments. Finally, we will illustrate the role of numerical modeling for certification.