Electra Aero Signs Agreement with Safran Helicopter Engines to Develop Turbogenerator for Propulsion of its Hybrid-Electric Aircraft

Elec­tra Aero has signed an agree­ment with Safran Heli­copter Engines to devel­op the 600 kW elec­tric tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor propul­sion sys­tem for the pro­to­type of Electra’s nine-pas­sen­ger hybrid-elec­tric short take­off and land­ing (eSTOL) air­craft, reports a press release. This tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor is an essen­tial com­po­nent of Electra’s hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem.

The release explains, “A tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor con­sists of a gas tur­bine com­bined with one or more elec­tric gen­er­a­tors, as well as an inno­v­a­tive sys­tem of elec­tri­cal pow­er and volt­age reg­u­la­tion.”

It goes on, “Safran Heli­copter Engines will devel­op the Elec­tra tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor on the basis of its Arra­no tur­boshaft engine and is lever­ag­ing Safran’s broad exper­tise in elec­tri­cal equip­ment, start­ing with Safran Elec­tri­cal & Pow­er, which will sup­ply the two GENeUS elec­tri­cal gen­er­a­tors. Safran has already ground-test­ed sev­er­al types of tur­bo­gen­er­a­tors at var­i­ous pow­er lev­els.”

The Tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor (Cred­it: Adrien Daste)

Flo­rent Chau­van­cy, Safran Heli­copter Engines Exec­u­tive Vice-Pres­i­dent, OEM Sales, com­ment­ed, ”We’ve close­ly eval­u­at­ed the advanced air mobil­i­ty mar­ket, and we believe the Elec­tra eSTOL air­craft offers ground­break­ing capa­bil­i­ty in a prac­ti­cal design that meets mar­ket needs of both today and tomor­row.”

He con­tin­ued, “We will be bring­ing to their project all the exper­tise we have inde­pen­dent­ly devel­oped in the field of hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion, com­bin­ing elec­tric and ther­mal ener­gy sources, to devel­op the right tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor for Electra’s first nine-pas­sen­ger pro­to­type air­craft.”

James Stew­art, Electra’s Vice-Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, remarked. “Elec­tra has care­ful­ly stud­ied air­craft elec­tri­fi­ca­tion and we believe that hybrid propul­sion is key to pro­vid­ing emis­sions and cost reduc­tions while pre­serv­ing use­ful pay­loads, ranges, and speeds for our cus­tomers, ulti­mate­ly, build­ing a bet­ter air­craft. The tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor is at the heart of this hybrid propul­sion sys­tem.”

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.electra.aero/

https://www.safran-group.com/

(Top image: Elec­tra Aero Hybrid eSTOL)