Twelve years ago, your editor gave his first talk at an electric aircraft symposium. Dr. Brien Seeley asked that he include all motors up to 100 kilowatts in his talk – at that time a rarity. Designers often had to “gang” small motors to drive a single propeller to obtain the necessary power. Now, Wright Electric has announced its plans to develop motors (and associated equipment) in the 500 kilowatt to 20 megawatt range. Motors of those sizes are still under development, but Wright claims to have tested and demonstrated “a megawatt-class, high performance inverter,” according to Green Car Congress. Jeff Engler is getting recognized for his vision. Here he give his virtual elevator speech at the Davos, World Economic Forum. His positive and yet measured approach seems to gain acceptance for that vision. Demonstrated Performance? Aiming for some audacious levels of performance, Wright’s inverter could hit these metrics: “99.5% efficiency –a 6x improvement in heat loss over current in-production …
