FIA2024: Honeywell to provide key flight technology for Electra’s hybrid-electric eSTOL aircraft

Electra.aero has select­ed Hon­ey­well flight con­trol com­put­ers and electro­mechan­i­cal actu­a­tion sys­tems for its nine-pas­sen­ger hybrid-elec­tric short take­off and land­ing (eSTOL) air­craft.

These crit­i­cal tech­nolo­gies will sup­port the fixed-wing eSTOL aircraft’s abil­i­ty to fly safe­ly and effi­cient­ly. Addi­tion­al­ly, Hon­ey­well has made a strate­gic finan­cial invest­ment in Elec­tra.

Com­ment­ing on the news, JP Stew­art, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er at Elec­tra, said: “Hon­ey­well brings deep exper­tise in con­trol sys­tem design, devel­op­ment and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to sup­port Electra’s goal of cre­at­ing sus­tain­able, effi­cient and acces­si­ble air trav­el.

“Hon­ey­well Aero­space Tech­nolo­gies has seam­less­ly inte­grat­ed best-in-class and mature flight con­trol tech­nolo­gies, which we believe will be a game chang­er for mak­ing safer, more afford­able and sus­tain­able air­craft, ulti­mate­ly enabling air trav­el with­out the air­ports.”

Hon­ey­well Ven­tures, Honeywell’s ven­ture cap­i­tal arm that invests in ear­ly-stage, high-growth com­pa­nies with emerg­ing or dis­rup­tive tech­nolo­gies, has made an undis­closed invest­ment into Elec­tra. The invest­ment sup­ports col­lab­o­ra­tion between the two com­pa­nies, rein­forc­ing Honeywell’s com­mit­ment to advanced air mobil­i­ty and the future of sus­tain­able flight. 

David Shill­i­day, vice pres­i­dent, Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty, Hon­ey­well Aero­space Tech­nolo­gies, added: “Electra’s air­craft is per­fect­ly suit­ed to region­al air mobil­i­ty and will enable new access to grow this mar­ket.

“Our abil­i­ty to pre-inte­grate mul­ti­ple sub­sys­tems will not only help reduce the time it takes to install and inte­grate these tech­nolo­gies, but it will also enable Elec­tra to expe­dite and stream­line pro­duc­tion of its ground­break­ing eSTOL air­craft.”

Electra’s eSTOL air­craft com­bines blown lift tech­nol­o­gy with dis­trib­uted elec­tric propul­sion, using bat­tery packs and a tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor to pow­er eight elec­tric motors placed along the wing’s lead­ing edge.

This allows the air­craft to take off and land in under 150 feet, enabling flight oper­a­tions from under­served and remote areas using uncon­ven­tion­al loca­tions like con­vert­ed park­ing lots, barges and short fields. The inno­v­a­tive design achieves 40 per cent low­er fuel con­sump­tion, sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduc­ing oper­at­ing costs, emis­sions and noise for com­mu­ni­ty-friend­ly oper­a­tions.

Honeywell’s com­pact fly-by-wire (cFBW) flight con­trol com­put­ers are aug­ment­ed by elec­tron­ics, rather than man­u­al con­trols. The com­put­er or ‘brains’ of the aircraft’s flight con­trols is about the size of a paper­back book, com­pared with tra­di­tion­al tech­nolo­gies on larg­er air­craft that are rough­ly the size and weight of a loaded suit­case.

Honeywell’s cFBW com­put­er draws less pow­er, helps reduce tur­bu­lence, and can dynam­i­cal­ly adjust flight motors to enable smooth flight paths, elim­i­nat­ing the need for heavy hydraulics and con­trol cables.

Honeywell’s electro­mechan­i­cal actu­a­tion sys­tems — which con­vert elec­tric­i­ty into mechan­i­cal force — allow for safe and effi­cient flight by tak­ing com­mands from the pilot or onboard flight man­age­ment sys­tem. Hon­ey­well actu­a­tors, which enable actions like mov­ing the flaps on the wing, are small­er, lighter, more reli­able and have 10 per cent greater pow­er den­si­ty than most aero­space actu­a­tors avail­able today.

Togeth­er, the com­pact size and lighter weight of both the cFBW flight con­trol com­put­ers and electro­mechan­i­cal actu­a­tion sys­tems are crit­i­cal com­po­nents for Electra’s eSTOL pro­duc­tion air­craft.