https://www.wired.com/story/magnix-electric-plane-motor/
A Better Motor Is the First Step Towards Electric Planes
2018-09-27 Jack Stewart
[images / magniX
https://media.wired.com/photos/5babccc8a2e356302119fb6b/master/w_582,c_limit/Electric-Plane-Motor-TA.jpg
Magnix is testing its new electric motor with a three-bladed aircraft
propeller, spinning on the front of a Cessna “Iron Bird” test frame
https://media.wired.com/photos/5babcd14f8a2e62d0bd5c487/master/w_532,c_limit/magni500-750SHP-motor.jpg
Magnix integrated an oil-based liquid cooling system into its motor, to get
rid of excess heat, which the thin air at thousands of feet up doesn't carry
away
]
In a white and grey laboratory, where neat runs of orange cables on the
walls provide a relief of color, a three-bladed propeller spins on the front
of a Cessna “Iron Bird” test frame. It’s eerily quiet, free of the buzz you
expect from a propeller-propelled aircraft. Just the whoosh of air, like a
ceiling fan spinning at full speed. It’s slow at first, then faster, to the
point that the blades blur out of vision, and only the bright chrome center
cone is visible, as engineers at the Magnix Systems Integration Laboratory
on Australia’s Gold Coast push the rig, before powering it down to a silent
stop.
This is the start of airframe tests for a new motor, designed for the coming
era of electric aviation. It’s a 350-horsepower machine that weighs just 110
pounds. But Magnix's engineers focus on a different metric. “We were able to
achieve 5 kW per kilogram,” says CEO Roei Ganzarski, about double the power
to weight ratio of a Tesla motor. In a car, that balance is less important.
At worst, a few extra pounds will add a bit of time to a 0 to 60 mph sprint
or knock a few miles off the car's range. But in a plane, the ongoing fight
with gravity demands low weight coupled with high power. “If a plane doesn’t
have the power to weight ratio that it needs, it simply won’t take off ,”
Ganzarski says. "It becomes a safety issue."
And just as automakers are coming around to the idea of electric drivetrains
being more efficient, quieter, and more flexible, the aerospace industry is
doing the same. Companies like Zunum, Eviation, and even NASA with the new
X-57, are all exploring the idea of replacing engines, and eventually jets,
with electric motors. Aviation is a significant, and growing, global
contributor to climate change. Flying accounts for 12 percent of US
transportation greenhouse gas emissions. Electric planes could run much more
cleanly, using energy from renewable sources. They could also cut down on
airline's jet fuel bills, which can run up from 10 to 50 percent of their
operating costs.
Magnix was founded in 2009 as an R&D firm working on all electrical motors,
and has headquarters and another engineering facility in Redmond, Washington
to go with its Australian outpost. It recruited talent from Airbus, Boeing,
Tesla, and Pratt and Whitney, and quickly decided that it didn’t need to be
limited to research—it could build what it takes to make these flying
visions a reality.
That meant tackling the bit that puts the plane in the air, which involves
challenges beyond the power to weight issue. In a car, engineers can rely on
air for at least some cooling effect, but that doesn't work at thousands of
feet up, where the air is thin. So Magnix had to design and integrate an
oil-based liquid cooling system into its motor, to get rid of excess heat.
It’s also had to design its machine to be able to meet the rigorous
requirements that getting safety approved for flight entails, with a close
eye on materials and structural integrity. Failing in midair is a lot more
serious than breaking down by the side of the road.
“We haven’t invented any materials, nor how an electric motor can work, but
we’ve put together the combination of what materials to use, in what
configuration of coils, magnets, and liquid cooling to allow us to provide
that power-to-weight ratio,” Ganzarski says.
The airframe tests, where the motor has been bolted into the place a
fuel-belching engine would usually sit, in the chopped-off front of a
Cessna, will run for over 1,000 hours. Engineers are taking readings of the
way the motor behaves, the torque it develops, and the temperature it runs
at, starting with gentle runs from 100 to 500 rpm. Next come endurance tests
and runs that mirror how the motor would be used on a flight, with high
power demand at takeoff, some climbing, cruising, and descent.
Ganzarski expects to move from the lab to real flight tests in about a year.
At the same time, his team is working on a range of motors for other
applications. Planes of the future might not have just one propeller at the
front, they might have rows of motors and fans along the wings, or one
pushing at the rear.
Siemens, which is working with Airbus on the development of electric planes
and electric vertical and takeoff machines, makes similar power to weight
claims for its electric motors, and has already started demonstration
flights, in a small aerobatic airplane. But otherwise, Ganzarski says he
doesn’t see many competitors, at least in the sky. The company is already
working on a larger, 750-horsepower motor, which could be a bolt-in
replacement for a Pratt and Whitney PT6 turboprop engine, used on small
planes like the Beech Queen Air.
By figuring out the detailed engineering needed to make a motor for flight
now, stands Magnix in a good position to capitalize on a growing industry,
and provide a very real demonstration of at least one aspect of electric
flight—a technology that still sounds just a little bit crazy.
[© wired.com]
+
http://thenewswheel.com/mary-barra-continues-to-promote-gms-emphasis-on-electric/
Mary Barra Continues to Promote GM's Emphasis on Electric
September 19, 2018 Marry Barra's recent post on LinkedIn indicates that GM
is still placing a primary emphasis on electric vehicle (EV) technology,
when it comes to future plans ...
https://twitter.com/mtbarra/status/1037281205245370368
For EVLN EV-newswire posts use:
http://evdl.org/archive/
{brucedp.neocities.org}
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