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Wright Electric moves premises to focus on propulsion system development
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BY BEN SAMPSON ON 30TH JANUARY 2020ELECTRIC & HYBRID, ENGINE TESTING, VIDEOS
USA-based startup Wright Electric is scaling up development of the hybrid electric propulsion system for its 186-seat aircraft.
The 10-person company is moving its headquarters and is to build a laboratory in Albany, New York to test the 1.5MW electric motor and 3kV inverter that will be used in its electric commercial passenger airliner.
Wright Electric is partnering with European airline EasyJet and business aviation services provider Jetex to develop the narrowbody aircraft for entry into service during 2030. The aircraft will have a range of around 500km to make it suitable for use on routes such as London-Amsterdam, one of Europe’s busiest routes.
Ground testing of the propulsion system will begin next year and the company plans to conduct flight testing during 2023 on a Boeing 747 testbed.
Wright Electric, which was founded in 2016, has previously tested sub-megawatt power systems while based in Los Angeles, California. Wright Electric’s CEO Jeff Engler said, “This is the next step in realizing our long-term goal.
“The design of the aircraft is being developed in parallel to the engine testing, but there is very closely-coupled propulsion and airframe integration, so the propulsion systems testing will inform the aerodynamic design of the aircraft.”
Wright Electric demonstrated a preview of its electric motor and announced a partnership with BAE Systems at an event in New York today. The UK-based aerospace and defense firm is “exploring opportunities for collaboration” in areas such as flight controls and batteries with the startup.
Wright Electric’s Wright 1 aircraft will use 12 motors of various sizes and ducted fans in its propulsion system, which will be powered by swappable battery packs. Engler said that he believed battery technology is developing fast enough to meet the needs of the aircraft in 2030.
Wright Electric’s Wright 1 narrowbody electric concept aircraft is being developed with airline EasyJet (Image: Wright Electric)
“The most challenging part will be making everything work at high altitude, where the air is thinner. You have to do your insulation and wiring differently,” Engler said.
“2030 is an ambitious but reasonable goal that will require the dedicated and tireless effort of our internal team and our partners. There are a lot of people working to making this happen and help move the industry forward.”
There are around 200 electrically-propelled aircraft in development around the world. Major OEMs such as Airbus and Collins Aerospace are investing heavily in the facilities and infrastructure that will enable them to develop and test the high power, high voltage power systems that the aircraft will require.
While most of the 200 development programs are for vertical take-off and landing aircraft, there are some for much smaller fixed-wing aircraft in development, with companies such as VoltAero and Rolls-Royce recently announcing significant progress, while long established developer Zunum Aero has run into development trouble and recently lost Boeing as a backer.
Wright Electric Begins 1.5 mW Engine Development Program for 186-Seat Commercial Airliner
By Brian Garrett-Glaser | January 30, 2020
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distributed electric propulsion, electric aircraft, Wright Electric
Wright Electric is beginning development of a 1.5-megaWatt motor. The startup plans to use about a dozen of these motors to power an all-electric airliner. (Wright Electric)
Wright Electric has begun its engine development program for its flagship 186-seat electric aircraft, targeting ground tests of its motor in 2021, flight tests in 2023 and entry into service in 2030.
Designs haven’t been finalized, but the Wright 1 airliner will use distributed electric propulsion, powered by about a dozen of the 1.5-megaWatt motors the company is now beginning to design and test, according to CEO Jeffrey Engler. Wright will also develop a 3kV inverter, forming the basis of its aircraft’s powerplant.
“It's a distributed electric propulsion system, similar to that, for example, of eVTOL companies. If you think of a typical Boeing 737 or [Airbus] A320, it's got one engine underneath each wing,” Engler told Avionics International. “Ours is going to be a distributed span of between 10 and 14 electric motors. And so what we're announcing is the development of this is essentially one of these electric motors that then will be duplicated to make our distributed electric propulsion system.”
Low-cost European airline EasyJet partnered with Wright Electric in 2017, stating that an electric jet with a 300-mile range could potentially serve a number of domestic and international routes on its network.
“This is another crucial step for our partner Wright Electric to move towards the introduction of commercial electric aircraft and it is exciting to see their ambitious timeline for testing and entry into service,” said EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren. “Battery technology is advancing at pace with numerous US government agencies now funding research into electric aviation– all of these developments help us to more clearly see a future of more sustainable operations.”
Wright Electric is in talks with BAE Systems to assist with the development of the aircraft’s flight controls and energy management systems, though not the propulsion system; Engler’s team has chosen to take that on in-house.
“We made a strategic decision to do that in house. That doesn't mean that we won't have partners that we work on that with, but we won’t completely outsource it the way that [airplane OEMs such as Boeing and Airbus] don't also make engines, they outsource that completely,” Engler said. “We expect to be more vertically integrated than that. When you have a transformative new industry, you often need more vertical integration than you would if an industry is more mature.”
In addition to EasyJet, Wright is working with Latin America airline VivaAerobus as a potential customer and airport operator Jetex on ground infrastructure requirements. Jetex is also an investor, according to Pitchbook.
Wright Electric hasn’t disclosed its fundraising activities, but it has received a grant from Harvard University and went through the YCombinator startup accelerator in winter 2017. Engler told Avionics that the company — which is relocating to Albany, New York — will have more to announce on that front in the next six months.
/QUOTE]Wright Electric Begins 1.5 mW Engine Development Program for 186-Seat Commercial Airliner - Avionics International
Wright Electric is beginning development of a 1.5-megaWatt motor. The startup plans to use about a dozen of these motors to power an all-electric airliner.www.aviationtoday.com
- исходник:Конвертоплан Kitty Hawk совершил жесткую посадку из-за скрипта заряда аккумуляторов
Heaviside
Kitty Hawk
Скрипт, управляющий зарядом аккумуляторов прототипа перспективного одноместного электрического конвертоплана Heaviside, разработкой которого занимается американская компания Kitty Hawk, стал причиной жесткой посадки аппарата во время летных испытаний в октябре прошлого года. К такому выводу, как пишетeVTOL, пришли специалисты Национального комитета безопасности на транспорте США. В полете скрипт забрал на себя слишком много вычислительных ресурсов бортового оборудования Heaviside, в результате чего аппарат практически перестал слушаться команд управления.
Электрический конвертоплан Heaviside совершил первый полет в начале октября 2019 года. Аппарат выполнен по самолетной схеме высокоплана с передним горизонтальным оперением. Конвертоплан оснащен восемью электромоторами, шесть из которых расположены на крыле и два — на законцовках переднего оперения. Толкающие воздушные винты на электромоторах выполнены поворотными — их валы могут отклоняться вниз на 90 градусов, создавая подъемную силу.
Размах крыла Heaviside составляет 6,1 метра. Аппарат способен на вертикальные взлет и посадку, а также полет в режиме висения. Дальность полета конвертоплана оценивается в 160 километров, а скорость полета — около 250 километров в час.
В середине октября 2019 года во время испытательного полета в беспилотном режиме, проводившемся на частной ферме в Трес-Пинос в Калифорнии, конвертоплан Heaviside совершил жесткую посадку на поле на скорости 37 узлов (68,5 километра в час) с пикированием в 20 градусов и 20-градусным креном на левый борт. В результате жесткой посадки аппарат получил серьезные повреждения — носовая часть конвертоплана отвалилась от фюзеляжа вместе с кабиной пилота.
Во время полета оператор наземной станции контроля обнаружил, что были превышены множество допусков в бортовом вычислителе Heaviside. Этот оператор сообщил о превышениях оператору управления, который контролировал полет конвертоплана. Тот перевел Heaviside в режим ручного управления и повел его на посадку, однако вскоре обнаружил, что аппарат практически не слушается управляющих команд. Затем конвертоплан совершил жесткую посадку. В общей сложности продолжительность этого испытательного полета составила 10 минут.
По итогам расследования специалисты пришли к выводу, что причиной жесткой посадки аппарата стал скрипт, управляющий зарядом аккумуляторов и его неправильное завершение оператором перед началом летных испытаний. Скрипт — программный сценарий — запускается оператором на земле, когда аппарат ставится на зарядку. После завершения заряда аккумуляторов и перед полетом оператор должен этот скрипт завершить, что было сделано с ошибками.
В полете не завершенный скрипт начал выдавать ошибки заряда аккумуляторов и результате постепенно забрал под свои нужды значительную часть ресурсов бортового вычислителя конвертоплана. В настоящее время Kitty Hawk занимается разработкой нового программного обеспечения для Heaviside в котором намерена исправить тайминги и процедуру работы программного обеспечения бортового вычислителя, чтобы отдельные незавершенные и неважные для полета процессы не могли забирать под свои нужды значительную часть ресурсов.
В начале февраля 2020 года американская компания Wisk, совместное предприятие Boeing и Kitty Hawk, объявила о намерении провести испытания перспективного электрического аэротакси Cora перевозкой пассажиров. Во время испытаний аэротакси будет выполнять полеты в полностью беспилотном режиме под надзором со стороны оператора, находящегося на земле. Проверки планируется проводить в районе Кентербери в центральной части новозеландского Южного острова. В испытаниях будут использоваться несколько летных образцов Cora.
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NTSB: Software timing error led to Heaviside eVTOL crash - evtol.com
NTSB: Software timing error led to Heaviside eVTOL crash
Tuesday March 31, 2020
Just two weeks after Kitty Hawk unveiled its single-seat Heaviside eVTOL last year, a prototype was substantially damaged after a software timing error affected the controllability of the aircraft, accident investigators say.
Kitty Hawk’s Heaviside has a total of eight VTOL electric motors with pusher-type propellers: six on the main wing, and two on the canard. The accident aircraft was serial number H2.2-003.
Kitty Hawk Photo
According to a newly released report from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the all-electric Heaviside 2 aircraft registered N221HV — the same one that appeared in Kitty Hawk’s Oct. 3 reveal video — was performing an unmanned developmental test flight on a privately owned ranch near Tres Pinos, California, at the time of the accident on Oct. 17. Kitty Hawk has been authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct flight testing up to 5,000 feet mean sea level (MSL) at two locations on the ranch.
The report describes how, approximately 10 minutes into the test flight, the aircraft encountered an anomaly while in conventional wing-borne flight at 2,000 feet MSL (approximately 700 feet above ground level). The ground station operator notified the remote pilot-in-command (PIC) that multiple flight computer limits were exceeded. The PIC took manual control of the aircraft and began descending it in preparation for an immediate landing.
“The PIC stated that he felt the aircraft had degraded control, and because the location on the test site was a large open field that allowed for a land out maneuver in any direction, he made the decision to perform a conventional landing into the wind,” the report states.
The prototype touched down in a field of tall grass with approximately 37 knots forward airspeed, 20 degrees nose-down pitch, and 20 degrees left roll. Heaviside was not designed to land with forward velocity on unimproved surfaces, and the prototype suffered substantial damage.
According to the report, the canopy and nose section separated from the fuselage, and the left canard separated from the nose section. The fuselage showed cracking on its lower left side, and the landing gear and tail skeg were damaged and separated from the aircraft. While the primary wing remained mostly intact, damage was noted to the outboard motor fairings, and the left outboard motor propeller was detached. There was no evidence of fire.
A review of the recorded data by Kitty Hawk revealed that the aircraft experienced a software timing error “caused by a battery charging script that, due to operator error, was not properly terminated at the ground station prior to the test flight. The improper termination resulted in the battery charging script running in an error state when it was not intended to be running, and the priority associated with the script allowed for the script to utilize significant processing resources,” the report states. “The manufacturer confirmed both the cause and effects of this timing error by recreating the sequence of events using a hardware in the loop simulator.”
Kitty Hawk told the NTSB it is making improvements to ground station and support equipment procedures as a result of the accident. Future software versions will address processor priority issues to prevent similar timing errors from occurring, and the company intends to have its corrective actions validated by an external party review, the report states.
A Kitty Hawk spokesperson told eVTOL.com, “The event happened during routine testing of Kitty Hawk’s Heaviside prototype vehicle. No one was on board the aircraft as we do not fly people. We are in a new world with electric VTOL vehicles and we want to push our aircraft to the limits to find any issues before we fly people. This was one of the tests we were doing when the aircraft was damaged. We plan to conduct multiple extensive tests on our unmanned vehicle to understand every failure mode to ensure utmost safety before we make them available to people.”
This is not the first time the NTSB has been involved in an eVTOL accident investigation. Last year, the agency published a report on the June 4 crash of the Passenger Air Vehicle developed by Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, which was attributed to resonant aircraft vibrations incorrectly activating the vehicle’s ground mode, commanding its motors to shut down.