Diamond Aircraft of Austria gave Flying magazine news of its hybrid-electric tiltrotor project – something not announced on Diamond’s own web site. According to Flying, Diamond will partner with an unnamed “major industrial partner.” The airplane could become certified within seven years, enabling customers to own a six-passenger vertical takeoff and landing vehicle with ostensibly high speed and the ability to set down virtually anywhere. Diamond founder and CEO Christian Dries says the craft will be powered by two high-output Siemens electric motors with power to recharge the batteries in flight supplied by a pair of Austro diesel engines. Since there are four propellers, the motors’ outputs would probably be split fore and aft to a pair of rotors. The unnamed concept would have a maximum takeoff weight of 6,600 pounds. To test the concept, Diamond will build a 725-pound unpiloted prototype starting next month. That will be followed by a 2,800-pound prototype, with the full, fly-by-wire production version coming …
Diamond Hybrid Drive – One Engine, Two Motors
Diamond aircraft seem to have been the go-to choice for electrification, with Boeing and Airbus fielding different versions powered by an array of powerplants. In 2008,Boeing’s fuel cell-powered craft, a DA-36 Dimona motorglider, “was modified by [Boeing Research and Technology Europe] (BR&TE) to include a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor coupled to a conventional propeller.” Airbus’ 2011 DA-36 “E-Star’s” propeller was powered by a 70kW electric motor from Siemens, with electricity supplied by a small Wankel engine from Austro Engine with a generator functioning solely as a power source. In 2014, Airbus showed an improved version of this craft at the Paris Air Show. Erik Lindbergh chose the Diamond HK-36 for his Powering Imagination testbed, using a donated YASA 750 motor for power. For all that electrifying experimentation, the airplane as normally configured with a Rotax engine has continued as a trainer and motorglider around the world. Now, a larger member …