Siemens Creates The World’s First Commercial Aircraft Electric Motor

Kleine Maschine, große Wirkung / Larger electrically powered aircraft a real possibility

Electric propulsion for the aviation industry is seeing an increase in recent times as batteries have improved beyond measure. It is believed that jet engines could be replaced by electric motors for international travel in the coming years. Siemens has been doing some great work in this field, and they have now come up with a new electric motor that can provide five times more power than a traditional engine.
Most POwerful Motor3

Siemens project team has specially designed the motor for a lightweight aircraft that is only 50 Kg in weight. The motor installed in the plane can provide a thrust up to 260 KiloWatts. As a result, the power to thrust ratio breaks the previously held record by a huge margin. This aircraft opens the possibility of larger aircraft having this kind of power in their engines. Up to 2 tons of weight and a hundred passengers can eventually be accommodated in that plane.

Mit Hilfe neuer Simulationstechniken und ausgeklügeltem Leichtbau erreicht der Antrieb ein einzigartiges Leistungsgewicht von fünf Kilowatt (kW) pro Kilogramm (kg) – vergleichbar starke Elektromotoren in der Industrie liegen unter einem kW pro kg. New simulation techniques and sophisticated lightweight construction enabled the drive system to achieve a unique weight-to-performance ratio of five kilowatts (kW) per kilogram (kg). The electric motors of comparable strength that are used in industrial applications deliver less than one kW per kg.

Dank seines Rekord-Leistungsgewichtes können nun erstmals auch größere Flugzeuge mit Startgewichten von bis zu zwei Tonnen elektrisch angetrieben werden. Thanks to its record-setting power-to-weight ratio, larger aircraft with takeoff weights of up to two tons will now be able to use electric drives for the first time.

Um den Motor zu realisieren, haben die Siemens-Experten alle Komponenten bisheriger Motoren auf den Prüfstand gestellt und bis ans technische Limit optimiert. Mit Hilfe neuer Simulationstechniken und ausgeklügeltem Leichtbau erreicht der Antrieb ein einzigartiges Leistungsgewicht von fünf Kilowatt (kW) pro Kilogramm (kg) – vergleichbar starke Elektromotoren in der Industrie liegen unter einem kW pro kg. To implement the world-record motor, Siemens' experts scrutinized all the components of previous motors and optimized them up to their technical limits. New simulation techniques and sophisticated lightweight construction enabled the drive system to achieve a unique weight-to-performance ratio of five kilowatts (kW) per kilogram (kg).

The main trick was to reduce the engine weight. The team developed and used Cobalt-Iron alloy in the stator which led to better magnetizability than ever. Along with the arrangement of the rotor’s permanent magnets, the magnetic flux is such that there is a minimal use of any material as compared to before. Another weight-reducing technique is to use directly cooled non-conducting liquid like Silicon Oil or Galden. The use of such a motor with combustion engines will also improve the overall fuel consumption by 25% according to the Siemens’ researchers. The total costs of the plane will also fall by 12 percent as an immediate effect.

The company is now working with Airbus to develop Hybrid engines for commercial purposes. The 2-ton 100 passenger unit is being currently worked on, and it is slated to go commercial by 2035. This technology will have great effects on reduction of emissions and having a cleaner environment in the future as it reduces the combustion required to fly the aircrafts.

1 Comment

  1. James Smith Reply

    Despite all the morons saying that climate change is not real or that human pollution does not cause it, there are some very large players that think differently. Hardly a week goes by without news of another electric car, motorcycle, or even airplane. If there were not going to be a need for these things, larger companies would not be expending resources on them.

    The Netherlands just voted to ban all non-electric cars by 2025. That’s just nine years away. Good for the Dutch. That;s been one of the most progressive countries in the wold for several decades and they population is already emjoying the benefits of that.

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