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VerdeGo Aero reveals spec of its hybrid-electric generator for VTOL, CTOL and STOL aircraft configurations

VerdeGo Aero has unveiled its third gen­er­a­tion hybrid-elec­tric hard­ware which is applic­a­ble to VTOL, CTOL and STOL air­craft con­fig­u­ra­tions.

The VH‑3–185 is also the first gen­er­a­tion to be slat­ed for large-scale pro­duc­tion and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion as a prod­uct line. It enables air­framers to design elec­tric air­craft that can effi­cient­ly con­vert jet fuel to elec­trons, open­ing the door to a wide array of new air­craft con­fig­u­ra­tions fea­si­ble for robust com­mer­cial mis­sions.

Dr. Pat Ander­son, Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer of VerdeGo Aero, said: “Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion enables new air­craft designs and new mis­sions by giv­ing air­framers the free­dom to posi­tion propul­sors to max­i­mize aero­dy­nam­ics, con­trol, and safe­ty. 

“The key to enabling these ben­e­fits is an effi­cient hybrid pow­er plant that makes the air­craft extreme­ly capa­ble in an oper­a­tional envi­ron­ment. The VH‑3–185 is the cul­mi­na­tion of years of research into mak­ing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion prac­ti­cal and use­ful.

The VH‑3–185 unit can be installed in con­fig­u­ra­tions that enable mul­ti­ple oper­at­ing modes includ­ing: 

• Pro­vid­ing 185kW of elec­tri­cal pow­er to arrays of elec­tric propul­sion motors and/or onboard bat­tery packs in a series-hybrid archi­tec­ture 

• Direct­ly dri­ving a prop/rotor with up to 185kW of shaft pow­er from the diesel engine in a par­al­lel-hybrid archi­tec­ture* 

• Oper­at­ing the gen­er­a­tor as a motor pow­ered by an onboard bat­tery pack to pro­vide up to 185kW from the gen­er­a­tor in a par­al­lel-hybrid archi­tec­ture* 

• Direct­ly dri­ving a prop/rotor with less than 185kW while send­ing the bal­ance of the pow­er from the diesel engine to pow­er dis­trib­uted elec­tric pow­er arrays, active aero­dy­nam­ics, onboard sys­tems, and/or bat­tery packs*

 • Oper­at­ing in “burst pow­er” mode deliv­er­ing the com­bined out­put of the diesel engine and the gen­er­a­tor (oper­at­ing as a motor pow­ered by an onboard bat­tery pack) for up to 370kW of shaft pow­er* 

* An option­al shaft pow­er out­put is avail­able for con­fig­u­ra­tions requir­ing both elec­tri­cal and mechan­i­cal pow­er out­put from the VH‑3.

The diesel engine inside the VH‑3 is an exclu­sive vari­ant of the cer­ti­fied SMA SR-305 that is devel­oped for VerdeGo’s hybrid sys­tems. The VH‑3’s diesel-hybrid archi­tec­ture is also com­pat­i­ble with glob­al­ly-avail­able jet fuel or bio­fu­el sub­sti­tutes. 

This con­fig­u­ra­tion pro­vides com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with exist­ing fuel infra­struc­ture and elim­i­nates land­ing pad delays inher­ent with elec­tric charg­ing. In many cas­es, hybrid air­craft using the VH‑3 can be designed to car­ry suf­fi­cient fuel to oper­ate mul­ti­ple back-to-back mis­sions, both increas­ing util­i­sa­tion of the air­craft and elim­i­nat­ing the need for new ener­gy infra­struc­ture alto­geth­er at some land­ing sites. 

VerdeGo Aero has said that com­pared with tur­bine hybrids, the VH‑3–185 has sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er oper­at­ing costs and emis­sions, with 40 per cent bet­ter fuel econ­o­my and low­er over­haul costs, all while being sig­nif­i­cant­ly qui­eter.

And when com­pared to state-of-the-art bat­ter­ies, the VH‑3–185 typ­i­cal­ly deliv­ers a four to sev­en-times increase in endurance, while also hav­ing low­er oper­at­ing costs due to the amor­tized per-flight cost of large, life-lim­it­ed bat­tery packs that may need fre­quent replace­ment. 

Eric Bartsch, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer at VerdeGo Aero, added: “The VH‑3 hybrid sys­tem is designed to be com­pat­i­ble with the ratio­nale for elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, allow­ing air­framers to devel­op hybrid-elec­tric air­craft with mis­sion capa­bil­i­ties that may not be avail­able for 20 years in the bat­tery-elec­tric mar­ket, while enabling com­pli­ance with Part 91 or Part 135 ener­gy reserve require­ments for safe flight plan­ning.” 

Regard­ed as a key play­er in propul­sion tech­nolo­gies for the next gen­er­a­tion of elec­tric air­craft, VerdeGo Aero has already announced sev­er­al part­ner­ships in the indus­try, includ­ing eVTOL air­craft devel­op­er Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty, eSTOL air­craft devel­op­er Air­flow and XTI Air­craft.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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