Monash Makes Motors – and Fuel from Thin Air

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Monash University announced a new type of electric aircraft motor and the promise of a fuel that could power everything from your smart watch to your airplane in the future.  Both rely on unique ways of seeing the physical world around us. The Kite Magnetic Motor Charles Alcock, writing for FutureFlight.com, discusses Kite Magnetics’ 120 kilowatt (160 horsepower) electric propulsion unit (EPU) intended for a variety of light aircraft applications.  part of a program at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, the motor could find applications in “conventional fixed-wing aircraft, as well as eVTOL and eSTOL designs, high-altitude satellites, and wing-in-ground craft,” according to the University. At its core, the motor relies on the University’s patented Aeroperm™ magnetic material.  This lightweight nanocrystalline substance is part of a soft amorphous metal matrix.  Unlike traditional iron materials in motors, however, Aeroperm does not exhibit iron’s normal “lossiness.”  Instead, it loses energy at “one-tenth the rate of existing magnetic materials used in current electrical …