Tag: Electric propulsion

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AeroTEC joins project to test hybrid-electric aircraft

Illustration: Hybrid-electric aircraft in flight
An artist’s conception shows the RTX hybrid-electric demonstrator in flight. (RTX Illustration)

Seattle-based AeroTEC says it’s been selected by Pratt & Whitney Canada to lead the modification and flight test of an experimental hybrid-electric demonstrator aircraft at its Flight Test Center in Moses Lake, Wash.

The RTX demonstrator is a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 aircraft that will be modified to use a thermal engine built by Pratt & Whitney Canada and a 1-megawatt electric motor developed by Collins Aerospace. Both Pratt & Whitney and Collins are RTX businesses.

Pratt & Whitney and its partners have also developed a mobile charging unit for the plane. The 200-kilowatt-hour batteries will be supplied by H55, a Swiss spin-off from the Solar Impulse venture that sent a solar-powered airplane around the world in 2015-2016. H55 is supported by RTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of RTX.

The RTX hybrid-electric demonstrator program is targeting up to 30% improved fuel efficiency compared to today’s regional turboprops. In-flight demonstrations could help open the way for the propulsion system to be used on multiple platforms in the future. A date for the first flight test hasn’t been set.

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Eviation suspends work on its electric airplane project

Eviation airplane takeoff
Eviation’s Alice electric airplane takes off for its first flight test in 2022. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Arlington, Wash.-based Eviation Aircraft has laid off most of its employees and paused work on its electric-powered Alice airplane, which had its first and only flight test more than two years ago.

In an emailed statement, Eviation CEO Andre Stein said a temporary pause was necessary in order to focus on “identifying the right long-term partnerships to help us make electric commercial regional flight a reality.”

“We at Eviation are proud of what we have accomplished in advancing electric flight,” Stein said. “This decision was not made lightly.”

Stein’s statement did not refer to layoffs, but citing unnamed sources, The Air Current and The Seattle Times reported that Eviation laid off most of its staff last week as the company sought further funding to continue development of the Alice airplane. As of last month, Pitchbook reported that Eviation had 64 employees.

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MagniX shows off its future hybrid electric airplane

MagniX CEO with plane destined for hybrid electric conversion
MagniX CEO Reed Macdonald speaks at the unveiling of a test airplane at Boeing Field. (MagniX via Vimeo)

The airplane that Everett, Wash.-based magniX will use to test its hybrid electric propulsion system for a $74.3 million NASA demonstration project is ready to go on the outside, and it’ll soon be ready on the inside as well.

Today magniX and its partners unveiled the De Havilland Dash 7 plane at Seattle’s Boeing Field in preparation for its conversion for NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project, or EPFD. The aircraft now bears the logos of magniX, NASA and Air Tindi, the Canadian regional carrier from which the Dash 7 was acquired.

“There’s a lot of work left to be done, but when you see the airplane, and you see the great livery and what’s behind it, it allows you to think about all of the really important work, all of the really hard work that’s gone on,” said Bob Pearce, NASA’s associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

The plane has already gone through baseline flight tests with its four standard Pratt & Whitney PT6A turbine engines — operating from Moses Lake, Wash., with technical assistance from Seattle-based AeroTEC. Meanwhile, magniX’s 650-watt electric motor has been tested at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio under conditions that simulate altitudes of up to 27,500 feet.

Now the project timeline calls for replacing two of the PT6A engines with magni650 electric motors, one at a time, and installing magniX’s 450-kWh Samson battery packs. Flight tests with the hybrid electric system are due to begin in 2026.

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Judge tosses out $72M jury verdict against Boeing

Zunum 2022 airplane
An artist’s conception shows Zunum Aero’s hybrid-to-electric airplane in flight. (Zunum Photo)

A federal judge in Seattle has sided with Boeing and is throwing out a jury verdict that called for the aerospace giant to pay $72 million to Zunum Aero, a Seattle-area aviation startup it once supported.

In an statement emailed to me after the judge made his ruling, Boeing said it was “grateful for the court’s careful and thorough consideration of all the evidence at trial to reach this decision.”

Zunum took a different view: “We are disappointed by the court’s decision to overturn the jury’s carefully considered and well-supported verdict,” the Bothell, Wash-based company said in an emailed statement. “We intend to appeal the court’s order and to reinstate the jury’s verdict.”

Zunum’s goal was to develop hybrid electric airplanes that it said could reinvigorate regional air transport. In 2017, the company forged a partnership with Boeing, and Boeing made $9 million in loans to Zunum. But the startup wasn’t able to gain traction and ended up suspending operations in 2019.

In its lawsuit, Zunum alleged that Boeing misappropriated its trade secrets and interfered with its efforts to bring in more investment from companies associated with Safran, a different aerospace company. At the end of an eight-day trial in May, a nine-member jury backed most of Zunum’s claims — but after the verdict, District Judge James Robart reviewed the case in response to Boeing’s post-trial challenges.

Robart’s ruling, issued today, sided with Boeing’s challenges. The judge wrote that Zunum didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the pieces of information it shared with Boeing about its technology could truly be considered trade secrets. He also agreed with Boeing that Zunum “failed to provide substantial evidence that Zunum had a valid business expectancy with Safran,” and did not suffer harm due to any interference from Boeing.

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Boeing loses a legal battle with electric aviation startup

Illustration: Zunum Aero aircraft flying over Seattle
An artist's conception shows Zunum Aero’s hybrid electric airplanes in flight over Seattle. (Zunum Aero Illustration)

A federal jury in Seattle says Boeing owes an unsuccessful electric-aviation startup called Zunum Aero $72 million for misappropriating trade secrets and interfering with its business plans.

Some of that amount could be tripled if the judge determines that the misappropriation was willful and malicious.

“Zunum Aero’s founders and other shareholders are pleased that the company had the opportunity to prove its case, and that the jury agreed,” Scott Danner of the law firm Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, lead counsel for Zunum, said in a statement. “After years of fighting, the jury’s verdict is a tremendous vindication.”

Boeing said it would challenge the judgment. “Boeing respectfully disagrees with the jury’s verdict, which is not supported by the law or the facts,” the company said.

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This self-confessed nerd is pioneering electric aviation

MagniX’s chief technology officer, Riona Armesmith, at the company's HQ in Everett, Wash. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

When Riona Armesmith moved from Britain to the Seattle area two and a half years ago to become chief technology officer for magniX, a company that’s pioneering electric aviation, she had to take a leap of faith.

Armesmith was leaving one of the world’s best-known manufacturing companies, Rolls-Royce, where she was head of programs for aviation futures. She would be joining a privately held company that builds electric propulsion systems for aircraft that won’t go into commercial service until the mid-2020s. And she’d be bringing her family along for an adventure in a whole new world.

“To move halfway across the world, for me, it was easy,” she says. “For my family, it was harder.”

MagniX and its technical team are facing daunting challenges, ranging from working around the limitations of battery technology to running a gauntlet of regulatory requirements. But Armesmith is unfazed. It’s a technological frontier that’s tailor-made for uncommon thinkers.

“There are many of us that moved here for this job because of the technology, because of what magniX is doing, and because we’ve flown five different aircraft in three years,” she says. “The opportunity to see what you’re doing fly in such a short amount of time — that opportunity is so rare in this industry.”

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Starfish Space scrubs plan for satellite rendezvous

Illustration: Otter Pup spacecraft in orbit
An artist’s conception shows Starfish Space’s Otter Pup spacecraft in orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Five months after a tilt-a-whirl spin spoiled the debut of Starfish Space’s first spacecraft, the Tukwila, Wash.- based startup has halted efforts to put its Otter Pup back on track to demonstrate an on-orbit satellite rendezvous.

Starfish had to abandon its plan to regroup and attempt a rendezvous when the Otter Pup satellite’s electric propulsion thruster suffered an anomaly and could no longer function. “We determined that we just pushed it a little bit too far,” Starfish co-founder Austin Link told me.

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Amazon says Kuiper satellites pass maneuvering tests

Amazon Project Kuiper Hall-effect thruster during test firing
Amazon’s Hall-effect thruster fires up with a krypton glow during testing. (Amazon Photo)

A month after the launch of its first prototype Project Kuiper satellites, Amazon reports that the spacecraft have demonstrated controlled maneuvering in orbit using their custom-built electric propulsion systems.

“A recent series of test firings provided critical on-orbit data to further validate our satellite design, with each test returning nominal results consistent with our design requirements,” Amazon said today in an online status report.

Today’s report suggest that Amazon’s Project Kuiper team — which is headquartered in Redmond, Wash. — is on track in its multibillion-dollar effort to create a 3,236-satellite constellation that would eventually provide broadband internet access for millions of people around the globe.

The two prototypes, known as KuiperSat 1 and 2, were sent into orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Oct. 6. They’re designed to test the hardware as well as the software, ground-based facilities and procedures that will be used for the full constellation. Amazon says that the first operational satellites are due to be launched early next year, and that beta service to selected enterprise customers could begin by the end of 2024.

At least half of the 3,236 satellites will have to be placed in orbit by mid-2026 to satisfy the requirements of Amazon’s license from the Federal Communications Commission. Mass production is due to begin by the end of the year at Amazon’s factory in Kirkland, Wash., at a rate that Amazon says will eventually ramp up to as many as four satellites per day. So, it’s in Amazon’s interest to make sure the design is fine-tuned as soon as possible.

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Helijet plans to buy electric air taxis for B.C. flights

Illustration: Helijet eVTOL with Vancouver skyline in background
Helijet is due to operate Beta Technologies’ Alia aircraft in British Columbia in the late 2020s. (Helijet Illustration)

Vancouver, B.C.-based Helijet International has placed firm orders with Vermont-based Beta Technologies for a fleet of electric-powered vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, or eVTOLs.

The aircraft, popularly known as flying taxis, are currently slated to undergo commercial regulatory certification in 2026 and would be available for commercial service shortly thereafter, Helijet said in a news release.

Beta Technologies’ Alia eVTOLs are built to carry a pilot and up to five passengers. The aircraft would be integrated into Helijet’s existing helicopter flight network, focusing on scheduled service between Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. They’d also be used for emergency response, air ambulance and organ transfer services in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, plus charter services for rural and remote communities.

The Alia orders were announced today at Helijet’s Victoria Harbour Heliport, with B.C. Premier David Eby in attendance.

“We are committed to introducing and integrating zero-emission, vertical-lift technologies and related ground/building infrastructure in the communities we serve, and look forward to transforming our current heliport infrastructure to meet future urban air mobility vertiport standards,” said Danny Sitnam, Helijet’s president and CEO.

Eby said Helijet’s move into the eVTOL market is consistent with British Columbia’s commitment to promoting sustainable aviation technology and infrastructure development.

“This provincial government recognizes the potential of advanced air mobility to decarbonize the aviation sector, improve regional connectivity, improve emergency response times and introduce new manufacturing opportunities in our province,” Eby said.

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What an electric boat ride feels like (and sounds like)

Arc One electric boat at Kirkland marina
The Arc One electric boat is moored at the Carillon Point Marina in Kirkland, Wash. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Lake Washington in August may be known for its gas-fueled, ear-splitting thunderboats, but this week it played host to an electric-powered lightning boat that was much easier on the ears.

“One thing you’ll note is that we’re able to have a conversation,” pilot Miriam Morris said as she revved up the Arc One electric boat past 40 mph. “This would not be possible on a gas boat.”

Arc brought the 24-foot luxury cruiser up to Kirkland’s Carillon Point dock to give potential buyers in the Seattle area — and at least one landlubber journalist — an up-close look and a quick jaunt around Lake Washington.

The Arc One, designed for lake outings, is the first in what the company hopes will eventually become a full line of electric boats. California-based Arc has already sold out the limited number of boats it’s been building over the past year (in the “low double-digits,” said Ted Herringshaw, the company’s head of product). But it’s planning to raise the production rate for a new model next year, thanks to a $30 million funding round and a bigger factory that’s set to open in Torrance, Calif.

Arc, which was founded in early 2021, is just one of several startups targeting the luxury electric boat market. Another leader in the field is Seattle-based Pure Watercraft, which is partnering with GM on pontoon boats and other products. Candela (which builds electric-powered hydrofoils) and X Shore are in the race as well — although Herringshaw doesn’t regard it as a race.

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