Wright Electric Goes Agricultural

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

Following its announcement of a range of battery packs last month, Wright Electric shares information about its one-megawatt motor powering an Embraer agricultural airplane.  Teaming with Axter Aerospace, a Spanish firm with a history of providing backup electric power for otherwise conventionally powered aircraft; Wright helps make crop dusting a safer enterprise.  This eight-year-old video shows Axter’s early efforts with a small Tecnam aircraft.  (Note: you might want to turn on the closed captioning.) Low-level flying necessary for dusting or spraying crops requires utter reliability, so a proven turbine backed up by a high-power electric motor seems like an ideal combination for those circumstances.  The combined power of 800 kilowatts (1,072 horsepower) allows carriage of a large payload, sufficient power to avoid obstacles, and redundancy to prevent sudden letdowns. The electric motor has been tested to 1.2 kilowatts (1,608 horsepower), so could provide adequate power even if the turbine failed.  Failure of either power source is highly unlikely in any …

An Electric Motor Lets You Down Easy

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

Having your engine fail in the middle of a flight is an unnerving experience, to say the least.  For buyers or owners of small two and four-passenger aircraft, a new installation might help mitigate the disaster. Miguel Ángel Suárez of Axter Aerospace, a Spanish firm dealing in the application of electronics to private flight, highlights the goal of his firm’s recent development.  “We are trying to save lives and prevent accidents related to loss of power during flights, when the engine fails or the fuel runs out.”  In their video, the University of Charles III of Madrid (UC3M) shows the Axter installation starting its electric motor immediately after a simulated power failure of the Rotax engine on the test Tecnam airplane. The collaboration between the university and the aerospace company comes about at least partially since Suárez is an alumna of the school.   He adds, “We mustn’t forget that every year in Europe and USA there [is] an average of …