Jeffrey Engler has headed up Wright Electric for the last decade, working to provide efficient motors, inverters and overall power systems for airliners. Now, his firm is working to develop those airliners. From a startup in 2016, looking for a single-engine light aircraft to convert to hybrid power, Jeffrey has grown Wright to a recognized force in future flight. Presenting a mission statement and schedule for the next eight years, Wright has ambitious, but reasonable plans. Currently, Wright is testing a two megawatt motor and inverter, “Collaborating with NASA, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Defense.” Testing will continue through 2023. The firm predicts it will be flying its Wright Spirit between the busiest “city-pairs” in the world by 2026. The Spirit, a BAe 146 converted to electric power, will connect paired destination such as, “Seoul-Jeju, London-Paris, Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo, and San Francisco-Los Angeles.” “Wright’s goal is to make all single-aisle flights shorter than 800 miles zero-emissions,” …
Joby “Unicorn” Gains Private, Military Backing
Joby Aviation is one of few “unicorns” in the electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) market, a billion-dollar enterprise. With funding coming from Toyota, several venture capital investors, Uber and the U. S. Army, Joby seems poised to demonstrate Urban Air Mobility (UAM) in a serious way. In 2011 JoeBen Bevirt, founder of Joby Energy, Joby Aviation, and creator of those knobby-looking tripods you see everywhere, invited Patrick McLaughlin to visit his design studio. Your editor got to tag along. On Woodpecker Ridge, north of Santa Cruz, JoeBen’s barn-like studio housed about a dozen engineers and designers all working on electricity-generating kites. He wore a T-shirt reading, “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.” That edginess has helped him, in the last decade to be a major player, with now over 500 employees in the aviation sector. JoeBen and Patrick discussed motor design and integration with a controller Patrick had built from off-the-shelf …