This paper presents an economic assessment of an aircraft design incorporating a morphing leading edge (MLE) device and electrical anti icing (EAI) as necessary technology for its operation. For a representative comparison to other designs direct operating costs (DOC) are chosen as a parameter to capture the multiple impacts of the change from a conventional turbulent design to a natural laminar flow (NLF) and further to the incorporation of the MLE technology. The process of integration of the technologies neccessary to operate a MLE device are described. For a better understanding of the propagation of changes, technical parameters i.e. block fuel (BF) are analyzed as well and compared between the different design steps. The designs compared are derived from the mission of a regional aircraft with a maximum capacity of 185 passengers. The software tool applied incorporates empirical and analytical methods that have been validated for the conceptual design phase. The results of the presented process give an indication for decision making towards the potential of innovative technologies.
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