Japan’s First Electric Aircraft

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, has been developing a multi-discipline approach to creating an electric light aircraft, much like efforts at Airbus.  Like Airbus, its first efforts use a modified existing airframe, the Diamond Dimona HK36 TTC-ECO motorglider.  Unlike Airbus, the organization has developed its own powerplant, reporting on March 14, 2014, that they had completed performance testing of the electronic propulsion system for small aircraft, in a final test program that lasted into late 2013. JAXA reports, “For the tests, researchers installed an aircraft motor system designed by JAXA in a 6.5-m x 5.5-m low-speed wind tunnel and measured motor shaft power, motor efficiency, propeller thrust, the temperatures of various motor system parts, and other values. The data showed that the system had a maximum motor output of 63 kW (kilowatts) and motor efficiency levels of 94% or higher, indicating that the motor demonstrates sufficient performance for manned flight. Researchers were also able to confirm that the system …