https://newatlas.com/boeing-pav-evtol-first-flight/58175/

Boeing VTOL air vehicle prototype makes first flight

Ben Coxworth

January 23rd, 2019

The PAV utilizes four sets of rotors for vertical takeoffs and
landings, along with a rear propeller for forward flight(Credit:
Boeing)

Given how many groups are now developing electric vertical takeoff and
landing (eVTOL) aircraft https://newatlas.com/vertical-aerospace-evtol-air-taxi/56285/ , it
shouldn't come as a surprise that aerospace giant Boeing has been
working on some of its own. This Tuesday, one of the prototypes made
its first flight.

Known for now simply as the passenger air vehicle (PAV) https://newatlas.com/boeing-aurora-autonomous-flight/51655/ , the
aircraft is part of the company's Boeing NeXt urban air mobility
project. It's designed to fly autonomously, performing helicopter-like
vertical takeoffs and landings, but switching over to faster and more
efficient fixed-wing flight while en route.

It measures 30 feet long by 28 feet wide (9.1 by 8.5 m), and has a
claimed battery range of up to 50 miles (80.5 km). Among other things,
Boeing NeXt is also developing an electric cargo air vehicle (CAV) https://newatlas.com/boeing-evtol-cargo-air-vehicle/52915/ , which can
carry a payload of up to 500 lb (227 kg) – it made its first indoor
test flight last year, with its outdoor testing scheduled to begin
sometime this year.

This week's PAV flight was a test of the aircraft's autonomous
functions and ground control systems, in which it successfully took
off, hovered in place, and then landed. It was not carrying any
passengers at the time. Subsequent flights are planned to evaluate its fixed-wing flight capabilities, along with its ability to smoothly
transition between vertical and forward flight.

Source: Boeing https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2019-01-23-Boeing-Autonomous-Passenger-Air-Vehicle-Completes-First-Flight#Closed
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https://newatlas.com/rolls-royce-electric-airplane-fastest/57849/

Rolls-Royce looks to smash speed record with the world's fastest
electric airplane

David Szondy

January 2nd, 2019

The electric aircraft will fly at over 300 mph (480 km/h)(Credit:
Rolls-Royce)

A partnership led by Rolls-Royce is building an all-electric aircraft
that may smash into the record books with a top speed of over 300 mph
(480 km/h) – beating the previous record of 210 mph (338 km/h) set in
2017 by Siemens. Scheduled to fly in 2020, the zero-emission electric
speedster is being developed as part of the Accelerating the
Electrification of Flight (ACCEL) and is billed as a leader of the
"third wave" of aviation.

The world's most energy-dense flying battery pack
ACCEL will utilize three 750R lightweight e-motors
The powertrain is the key to achieving 90 percent energy efficiency
and zero-emission flight
Sensors collect in-flight information
Gloucestershire airport outside of Cheltenham, England may seem like
just another provincial airfield, but it's the base for an attempt by engineers, designers, and data specialists from Roll-Royce, electric
motor and controller manufacturer YASA and the aviation start-up
Electroflight to create a single-seater prop-plane that will take
electric aircraft to a whole new level.

Partly funded by the British government, ACCEL draws on Formula E
expertise in an effort to build an electric aircraft that tops out at
over 300 mph to set a new e-plane record, and potentially one day even
exceed the 1931 Schneider Trophy record set by a Supermarine S.6B that
used a Rolls-Royce "R" engine to reach 343 mph (552 km/h) in 1931.

The world's most energy-dense flying battery pack
To achieve this, the Rolls-Royce team is working on a battery pack of
6,000 cells that the company claims is the most energy-dense to ever
be installed in an aircraft. When up and running, the powertrain will
run at 750 V and the aircraft will boast a maximum power of 750 kW –
that's enough to power 250 homes. This will be cooled by an Active
Thermal Management System Cooling radiator and carry enough charge to
fly from London to Paris nonstop.

According to Rolls-Royce, the key to the design is to not just make a
big enough battery, but also one that won't overheat, is light enough
for flight, and can be installed in a stable airframe. The batteries
feed into three 750R lightweight e-motors built by YASA. The three electrically-actuated blades of the single propeller operate at 2,400
RPM for a more stable ride with an efficiency of up to 90 percent and
zero emissions. Meanwhile, sensors will monitor 20,000 points in the
powertrain to provide the engineers with plenty of data on
performance.

"This plane will be powered by a state-of-the-art electrical system
and the most powerful battery ever built for flight," says Matheu
Parr, ACCEL Project Manager for Rolls-Royce. "In the year ahead, we're
going to demonstrate its abilities in demanding test environments
before going for gold in 2020 from a landing strip on the Welsh
coastline."

Source: Rolls Royce: https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/our-stories/innovation/2018/introducing-accel.aspx
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https://newatlas.com/equipmake-electric-spoke-motor-interview/54694/

Next-gen spoked magnet design spins up cheaper, lighter, more powerful
electric motor
AUTOMOTIVE
Loz Blain
Loz Blain

May 21st, 2018
13 PICTURES
Equipmake's spoke motor significantly boosts torque and sustained
power output while being smaller, lighter and cheaper...
Equipmake's spoke motor significantly boosts torque and sustained
power output while being smaller, lighter and cheaper to manufacture
than an equivalent standard IPM motor(Credit: Equipmake)

VIEW GALLERY - 13 IMAGES
British engineer Ian Foley has had considerable input into Formula One
racing, designing active suspension systems for Lotus and a KERS
system for the Williams team. But in recent years he's turned his hand
to electric drivetrain technology, and he's taken his company
Equipmake in a new direction as he looks to build something a little
more relevant to the average Joe.

Equipmake's spoke motor design exploded view
Equipmake's spoke motor design – exploded and labeled
Equipmake's spoke motor: 50% the volume and 80% the weight of other
motors with equivalent power...
Blue lines represent direct cooling channels that can keep the spoke
magnets well inside operating temperature...
It comes in the form of an electric motor that has its magnets
arranged like spokes around the central hub, and Foley claims it
offers superior torque, power density and cooling capabilities in a
package that's smaller and cheaper to manufacture than a standard
motor. With electric drivetrains set to own the coming decades in both
consumer and public transport, that kind of claim is a big deal.

"Most of the radial flux permanent magnet motors that are out there in automotive have the magnets arranged in a very shallow V-shape in
laminations around the hub," Foley tells us over the phone from his
office in Norfolk, UK. "This was a design that Toyota ran with 20
years ago with the Prius. Effectively, everybody's gone with similar
versions of that design."

The problem is cooling. With the magnets in this standard arrangement,
it's hard to get coolant close enough to them to keep them in their
operating zone under constant high-power operation.

Hence, electric motors have two power figures: how much they can put
out flat out (peak power) and how much they can sustain without
eventually overheating and needing to shut down (continuous power).
I've experienced this kind of shutdown on the road with certain
electric motorcycles; when you ride them hard for an extended period,
the engine management system quietly kicks in and limits your power
output. It's more than a little annoying, particularly on a
performance vehicle.

You can offset this kind of thermal cut-off by using more expensive
magnet materials – neodymium itself demagnetizes quickly as the
temperature rises, but you can specify your magnets to include
additives that bump the thermal shutdown temperature higher, as long
as you don't mind the additional cost of these fancy high-temp
magnets.

Magnets are arranges perpendicular to the hub surface, radiating
outward like the spokes of a wheel
"The spoke motor has magnets arranged at 90 degrees to the hub, like
the spokes of a wheel," says Foley. "And there's laminations in
between each of those spokes. This arrangement gets better use of the
magnetic material; it means that for a certain torque we can use 25
percent less magnet material, or use the same amount and get 25
percent more torque.

"It also means, because the magnet sits right on top of the hub, we
can get water inside the hub and cool the magnet directly. So the
spoke architecture gives us more torque to start with, but more
importantly it lets us get water right underneath the magnet and get
it much better cooled.

"We don't need expensive high-temp magnets. We can use the cheapest, cooking-grade neodymium magnet because we can keep it cool enough and
still maintain the performance."

Equipmake's spoke motor design – exploded and labeled
For comparison's sake, let's take a look at the record-breaking
Siemens electric aviation motor we covered back in 2015. These things
were astoundingly light and powerful for the day, pumping out a
massive 5 kilowatts per kilogram of weight. Equipmake claims its spoke
motors can make as much as 9 kW/kg, in a package that's cheap and easy
to manufacture.

Spoke motors aren't new – there have been many designs over the years.
It's just that nobody's figured out how to build one cost-effectively,
says Foley: "Fundamentally the spoke motor architecture is very well
known. A number of large companies like GE have written papers on the
benefits of the spoke motor. The reason the standard motor is widely
adopted is because there's a well known route to low cost manufacture.

"There are some design challenges to implementing the spoke cost
effectively. The existing designs worked, but they really weren't
suitable for mass production, they were very expensive. We use a cheap aluminium hub, which is forged, so a very low cost method of
manufacture. And the way we interlock the laminations, they hold the
magnets in, and that's a whole design including the cooling system
which we've patented.

"All of the processes and materials we use are standard processes. So
the fact that it's smaller and lighter means that it'll be cheaper.
There's nothing in the design or manufacture that involves an
expensive process that isn't being used for motor manufacture at the
moment.

No expensive materials or complex manufacturing processes required
"And we know from other work that we've done on other motors that a conventional motor of very similar performance in terms of peak and
continuous power, we're about 50 percent of the volume and 80 percent
of the mass. So, the fact that it's smaller and lighter means it'll be
cheaper. I can't put a figure on how much cheaper it'll be in mass
manufacture, but there's no expensive processes, and it's got less
materially, so it's going to be cheaper."

Equipmake's initial focus will be on the automotive sector because all
those years Foley spent working with F1 teams have built him a
significant network among people who build fast cars.

Understandably then, two of the company's current projects are
electric supercars. One's still under wraps, but the other is
currently known as the Ariel Hipercar: an ultra-lightweight,
1,180-horsepower (880-kW) monster that's set to go into production in
2020. The Hipercar will use one of Equipmake's APM200 motors for each
of its four wheels. It'll have a fairly small, high-density battery,
sustained by a 120,000-rpm gas-driven turbine range extender for
longer trips.

Ariel's outrageous Hipercar will use four of Equipmake's APM200 spoke
motors
Another project plans to use Equipmake's lightweight, affordable
electric powertrains to build a cost-effective electric bus platform.
Foley estimates these buses will be cheaper than diesel vehicles over
a five to 10-year period, depending on the market. Working prototypes
are expected within months, with testing and development time
scheduled for a 2020 production run.

At the same time, Equipmake is responding to a number of enquiries
from the aviation and marine industries, where arguably even more can
be made of the spoke motor's sustained power capabilities.

Check out a video explanation: https://youtu.be/HKUX8x1_BCE

Source: Equipmake: http://equipmake.co.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------------------

https://newatlas.com/blackfly-vtol-aircraft/55445/

Opener launches BlackFly fixed-wing VTOL flying car that doesn't
require a license
AIRCRAFT
David Szondy
David Szondy

July 13th, 2018
BlckFly is a single-seater electric VTOL aircraft
BlckFly is a single-seater electric VTOL aircraft(Credit: Opener)

Canadian-based aviation firm Opener Inc. has unveiled its new BlackFly single-seater aircraft, which it bills as a Personal Aerial Vehicle
(PAV) and the world's first ultralight all-electric fixed-wing
Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. The fully-amphibious
drop-shaped flyer with fore and aft wings sporting eight electric
motors has a range of 25 mi (40 km) and a top speed of 62 mph (100
km/h).

According to Opener, the BlackFly is "designed and built for a new
world of three-dimensional transportation." Due to its limited
capabilities, the company says that it is easy to operate and can be
flown in the United States from small grassy areas without formal
training or FAA licensing.

The BlackFly is the result of nine years of development with over
1,000 test flights and boasts triple modular redundancy for greater
safety, as well as an optional ballistic parachute. The company claims
that it charges in under 30 minutes, has a low-noise signature, is
geo-fence capable, and even has an Automatic Return-to-Home button.

Opener says that though the present version is somewhat limited, it
hopes that it will one day lead to rural/urban commuting networks
powered by renewable energy sources.

"Opener is re-energizing the art of flight with a safe and affordable
flying vehicle that can free its operators from the everyday
restrictions of ground transportation," says Marcus Leng, CEO. "We
will offer competitive pricing in an endeavor to democratize
three-dimensional personal transportation. Safety has been our primary
driving goal in the development of this new technology. Opener will be introducing this innovation in a controlled and responsible manner.
Even though not required by FAA regulations, BlackFly operators will
be required to successfully complete the FAA Private Pilot written
examination and also complete company-mandated vehicle familiarization
and operator training."

The BlackFly and other Opener vehicles will be on display at the 2018
EAA AirVenture Convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin from July 23 to July
29, 2018.

The video shows BlackFly taking to the skies:
https://youtu.be/Jcpq6XYYoY4

Source: Opener https://www.opener.aero/press/opener-unveils-first-canadian-qualified-ultralight-all-electric-personal-aerial-vehicle/

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