Elektriske fly - Cessna Caravan kommer til neste år - AW&ST

MagniX Promises Electrically Powered Cessna Caravan By Summer 2019 Michael Bruno  The race to provide electric engines for aircraft has a new marker, with MagniX promising to have a “full propulsion system ready to be put on a Cessna 208 Caravan and fly it” by August 2019, according to CEO Roei Ganzarski. The feat will require a 540-kW electric motor. Ganzarski told the Wharton Aerospace West Coast conference in San Francisco this month that the ultimate goal is to be able to propel a loaded Caravan for up to an hour of flight, which matches the profile of sorties that package delivery companies such as FedEx fly to the outskirts of major cities. “If we can pull that off, then we know we’re on the right track,” he says. “If we can’t pull that off, then we really don’t need to compete at all because we could take years to achieve it.” MagniX is aiming to “leapfrog” other electric propulsion efforts and provide powerplants for aircraft serving the “middle-mile” market, in ranges of hundreds of miles. Battery technology is the biggest challenge, says Ganzarski, but his company is working with a couple of battery companies he did not identify. MagniX has a “few” motors running in Australia, where it is based, that provide 265-kW continuous power. MagniX promises to power Cessna Caravan by August 2019 Test is proof point for commercial Aviation business case What is more, according to MagniX’s website, while its Magni5 motor produces a continuous power level of 265 kW with an operating speed of 2,500 rpm, it can peak above 300 kW. The 444-mm-dia. (17.5-in.), 275-mm-long permanent magnet motor uses a combination of “advanced” electromagnetic designs and materials, “optimized motor topology” and a proprietary cooling system to produce power density of 5 kW/kg. Motor peak efficiency is 95%. Motor dry mass is 53 kg (117 lb.). Ganzarski acknowledges a competing motor is being developed by Siemens. The German company has developed a 260-kW motor that weighs 50 kg. The SP260D is powering the Extra 330LE aerobatic aircraft. Siemens will also provide smaller motors to Colorado-based Bye Aerospace for its two-seat Sun Flyer 2 and four-seat Sun Flyer 4, being developed as FAA-certified all-electric aircraft for the flight training and general aviation markets.

Australian startup MagniX is working to outfit a Cessna 208 Caravan with an electric motor to leapfrog competitors in the commercial market. Credit: Textron

Still, Ganzarski notes that “if you’re looking at commercial and really solving the middle mile, you can’t do that,” referring to having just 2 to 4 passengers maximum. “The first thing we said is we’re going to leapfrog; we’re not going to do the one-passenger, two-passenger,” he said. “If you can tackle the 10-passenger plane—500+ kW in the motor, that’s 800-900 hp—then you can probably tackle bigger. You can definitely tackle smaller.” Nine-year-old MagniX’s workforce was drawn from electrical engineering in automotive and boating, as well as aerospace systems engineers, Ganzarski says. He was CEO of another company, software-provider BoldIQ, from June 2012 until this past January, and previously was a customer officer at Boeing dating to 2007. Privately held MagniX has enough money for the next five years, he says, and is not looking for venture capital (VC).

The company recognizes regulatory approval will be a hurdle. But Ganzarski says battery technology remains the biggest challenge. “Battery technology is not where it needs to be for true commercial operations electrically, it just isn’t,” he says. “It may be there in 36 months.” The biggest naysayers MagniX has come across are the traditional powerplant providers. “The first thing we’re finding is industry pushback: the large incumbents who either produce or sell large, gas-guzzling jet engines or turboprop engines,” Ganzarski says. “They are the first to say, ‘This can’t be done, and here are the million different reasons why it won’t work.’ We know the million reasons it won’t work. It’s the one reason it will work; that is what we’re really after.” The aviation electric propulsion race is getting more crowded. Startup Zunum Aero, which is backed by Boeing and JetBlue’s VC arms, similarly wants to revitalize short-haul regional air transport by developing a small hybrid-electric airliner that features low operating costs, noise and emissions. It is developing a 1-megawatt powertrain and plans to fly an initial 500-kW system on a testbed in 2019. Israel’s Eviation Aircraft is working on an all-electric nine-seater with three 260-kW motors that it plans to fly in 2019. Israel Aerospace Industries is also developing a short-haul electric aircraft. And U.S. startup Wright Electric plans to fly a nine-seat hybrid-electric aircraft by 2019, as a first step toward an all-electric narrowbody airliner for short-haul markets such as London-Paris and New York-Boston. Electric aircraft development for commercial transport purposes began in earnest with Airbus’ unveiling in 2014 of its E-Thrust concept. It is now working with Rolls-Royce and Siemens to fly the E-Fan X 2-megawatt hybrid-electric regional aircraft technology demonstrator in 2020. But startups are the sector to watch for electric propulsion disruption, stressed a study last year by aerospace and defense consultants at Roland Berger. The consulting group plans to release an update to the study ahead of the Farnborough Airshow in July. Meanwhile, they have created an interactive map of about 100 related  development programs. —With Graham Warwick in Washington and Guy Norris in Los Angeles