Airbus partners with MAGicALL to develop electric motors for CityAirbus NextGen

Air­bus has select­ed MAG­i­cALL to sup­ply motors for the NextGen eVTOL air­craft with a pro­to­type using a tai­lored ver­sion of the MagiDrive.

The detailed cus­tomi­sa­tion of NextGen’s elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem will enable the pro­to­type to ben­e­fit from increased per­for­mance and reli­a­bil­i­ty.

The light­weight brush­less motors that will be inte­grat­ed into NextGen incor­po­rate the lat­est gen­er­a­tion of MagicAll’s mag­net­ics and pow­er elec­tron­ics.

Air­bus’ Head of Urban Air Mobil­i­ty (UAM) Joerg P. Mueller said: “We will ben­e­fit from the expe­ri­ence of Mag­i­cAll in devel­op­ing the elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem for CityAir­bus NextGen.

“The elec­tric motors are a major com­po­nent of our pro­to­type where the high torque and low weight of the MagiDrive and its robust design will ben­e­fit the over­all effi­cien­cy of the air­craft.”

The elec­tric motors will also con­tribute to the seam­less archi­tec­ture of Air­bus’ eVTOL pro­to­type, thanks to a ful­ly inte­grat­ed solu­tion com­pris­ing both the motor itself and its con­trol sys­tem, as part of a ful­ly enclosed, air-cooled propul­sion unit.

MAG­i­cALL is a lead­ing sup­pli­er of elec­tric motors based in Cal­i­for­nia. Found­ed in 2004, the com­pa­ny ben­e­fits from a proven exper­tise in cus­tom mag­net­ic and pow­er elec­tron­ic solu­tions for the aero­space indus­try.

MAG­i­cALL also con­tributed to the devel­op­ment of the motors that pow­ered Air­bus’ tilt-wing UAM tech­no­log­i­cal demon­stra­tor, Vahana.

Since 2014, Air­bus has been devel­op­ing elec­tric propul­sion to dri­ve the devel­op­ment of new aer­i­al vehi­cles.

In March, Air­bus signed an agree­ment with Spir­it AeroSys­tems to devel­op the fixed wings of its CityAir­bus NextGen eVTOL pro­to­type air­craft, equipped with a V‑shaped tail, and eight elec­tri­cal­ly pow­ered pro­pellers as part of its dis­trib­uted propul­sion sys­tem.

The pro­to­type is being devel­oped to fly with an 80km oper­a­tional range and reach a cruise speed of 120 km/h, with the first flight planned for 2023.

In Sep­tem­ber 2021, the Com­pa­ny announced that it was devel­op­ing NextGen as a UAM to offer a new mobil­i­ty ser­vice and also to reduce emis­sions in avi­a­tion across its prod­uct range.