magniX achieves historic milestone with its electric propulsion unit during NASA test campaign 

mag­niX has com­plet­ed test­ing of its magni650 elec­tric propul­sion unit (EPU) at NASA’s Elec­tric Air­craft Test­bed (NEAT) in San­dusky, Ohio.

The magni650 suc­cess­ful­ly per­formed at an alti­tude of 30,000 feet at a max­i­mum con­tin­u­ous pow­er of 700 kilo­watts (kw) – in what mag­niX says is an unprece­dent­ed achieve­ment for an elec­tric engine.

Announc­ing the news today (Tues­day), mag­niX said the break­through per­for­mance of its EPU under sim­u­lat­ed flight con­di­tions at alti­tude demon­strates its readi­ness for the flight test phase of NASA’s Elec­tri­fied Pow­er­train Flight Demon­stra­tion (EPFD) project and moves it clos­er to the world’s first elec­tric engine cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. 

Ben Lox­ton, mag­niX VP of Tech­ni­cal Pro­grams, said: “The NEAT test cam­paign has moved us clos­er to the world’s first cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of an elec­tric pow­er­train for avi­a­tion.

“The work we are doing with NASA in the EPFD project will enable the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of region­al com­mer­cial avi­a­tion in pure elec­tric on short routes, and hybridiza­tion on longer routes – sig­nif­i­cant steps toward the decar­boniza­tion of aero­space.”

In the next stage of EPFD, one of the four tur­bine engines on magniX’s De Hav­il­land Dash 7 test air­craft will be replaced with a magni650 elec­tric pow­er­train, with test flights planned for 2026.

The final stage of the pro­gram will see a sec­ond tur­bine engine sub­sti­tut­ed with anoth­er mag­niX pow­er­train. This con­fig­u­ra­tion is expect­ed to reduce fuel con­sump­tion by up to 40 per cent on a typ­i­cal flight. Through the data col­lect­ed, this will bring the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of large-scale com­mer­cial air­craft clos­er to entry-into-ser­vice by the end of the decade.

Accel­er­at­ing The Take­off of Elec­tric Flight

With an unmatched record of pow­er­ing first flights on five dif­fer­ent air­craft, mag­niX is lead­ing the advance­ment of elec­tric avi­a­tion. Hav­ing launched its Sam­son bat­ter­ies ear­li­er in 2024, with unmatched ener­gy den­si­ty and cycle-life, mag­niX pro­vides a full elec­tric pow­er­train solu­tion with a clear path­way to entry-into-ser­vice. 

Head­quar­tered in Everett, Wash­ing­ton State, U.S., mag­niX has devel­oped indus­try-lead­ing pow­er­trains and bat­ter­ies for the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of trans­porta­tion.

mag­niX’s full elec­tric pow­er­train offers an inte­grat­ed sys­tem for elec­tri­fy­ing air­craft. Its Sam­son bat­ter­ies pro­vide a safe, prac­ti­cal solu­tion for bat­tery elec­tric and hybrid elec­tric air­craft and are also ide­al­ly suit­ed to pow­er heli­copters, eVTOL air­craft and marine craft.