https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-airplane
"Aviation aims to slash some of its substantial carbon emissions by
electrifying aircraft, but the industry’s stringent weight restrictions make
this difficult. Building electric motors that match the power-to-weight ratios
of jet engines has proven especially challenging, so most efforts have been
restricted to smaller aircraft. A new compact lightweight design for a
megawatt-scale motor unveiled by researchers at MIT could open the door to
electrifying much larger aircraft.
While the automotive sector is undergoing a transition from fossil fuels to
battery power, doing the same in aviation is much harder. The energy density of
modern batteries is still far too low to power aircraft for substantial
distances, which is why companies like Eviation are focused on short intercity
hops and a host of EVTOL companies are aiming to disrupt the daily commute.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to achieving the required paradigm
shift in specific power. Many things together make the design possible, and
the devil is in the details.
—Zoltán Spakovszky, MIT
Batteries may get most of the attention, but they’re not the only place where
weight is a problem—electrifying the motors has also been a challenge. Electric
motors create thrust by passing current through large amounts of copper wiring
and steel to create magnetic fields that can turn a rotor. These materials are
inherently heavy, says Zoltán Spakovszky, a professor of aeronautics at MIT,
which makes it difficult to build electric motors with a high power-to-weight
ratio, also known as specific power. That’s because making motors more powerful
means adding a lot more metal.
As a result, the motors used in current electric aircraft are capable of
producing only hundreds of kilowatts of power, which is too little to power
larger aircraft. But in research presented at the AIAA AVIATION Forum, held
between 12 and 16 June in San Diego, Spakovszky and his colleagues unveiled
designs for an electric motor capable of generating 1 megawatt of power. They
say the achievement will bring the electrification of regional jets within
reach."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-rubella-south-east-asia-huma-rights-estonia-animal-canada/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
