GE Aerospace completes ground test of megawatt-class hybrid electric engine system

GE Aero­space has com­plet­ed test­ing of a megawatt-class hybrid elec­tric engine sys­tem devel­oped through NASA’s Elec­tri­fied Pow­er­train Flight Demon­stra­tion (EPFD) project, paving the way for flight tests.

The ground test was the company’s first to val­i­date the full inte­grat­ed sys­tem, includ­ing GE Aero­space-devel­oped motor/generators, pow­er con­vert­ers and invert­ers, con­trollers, Dow­ty* pro­pellers, Avio Aero* gear­box­es, and a CT7 engine. BAE Sys­tems pro­vid­ed the bat­ter­ies used and Boe­ing sub­sidiary Auro­ra Flight Sci­ences sup­plied the com­plete nacelle.

Arjan Hege­man, vice pres­i­dent for future of flight at GE Aero­space, said: “Step by step, we’re prov­ing hybrid elec­tric engine tech­nol­o­gy for next-gen­er­a­tion com­mer­cial air­craft. This lat­est ground test of a com­plete hybrid elec­tric pow­er­train posi­tions GE Aero­space to have the tech­nolo­gies ready to meet cus­tomer needs for greater dura­bil­i­ty, effi­cien­cy and range in future propul­sion sys­tems.”

Through­out the test cam­paign at Pee­bles Test Oper­a­tion in Ohio, teams sim­u­lat­ed var­i­ous flight phas­es such as taxi, take­off, climb and cruise. The elec­tric pow­er­train helped suc­cess­ful­ly pow­er the pro­peller and gen­er­at­ed pow­er to the bat­tery.

Flight­wor­thy com­po­nents that meet high­er safe­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty require­ments than typ­i­cal test hard­ware were used as part of GE Aerospace’s efforts to mature a com­mer­cial-grade hybrid elec­tric engine sys­tem. 

This mile­stone fol­lows more than a decade of test­ing and matur­ing indi­vid­ual com­po­nents and mod­ules.

Hege­man added: “The ground test is a major turn­ing point in our under­stand­ing of hybrid elec­tric pow­er­trains for avi­a­tion and a fun­da­men­tal build­ing block for the future.”

A hybrid elec­tric engine sys­tem com­bines an elec­tric pow­er­train with a tra­di­tion­al gas tur­bine to opti­mize pow­er man­age­ment dur­ing dif­fer­ent phas­es of oper­a­tion. Hybrid elec­tric sys­tems are high­ly com­pat­i­ble with dif­fer­ent fuel types and advanced air­craft engine archi­tec­tures like Open Fan.

RISE pro­gram test­ing

GE Aero­space has lever­aged sev­er­al NASA projects to mature tech­nolo­gies for more elec­tric air­craft engines through the CFM Inter­na­tion­al RISE** pro­gram. 

Unveiled in 2021, the RISE pro­gram is one of the avi­a­tion industry’s most com­pre­hen­sive tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tors with more than 350 tests and more than 3,000 endurance cycles com­plet­ed to date, includ­ing tests on Open Fan, com­pact core, hybrid elec­tric sys­tems and oth­er tech­nolo­gies. The RISE pro­gram pri­or­i­tizes safe­ty, dura­bil­i­ty and effi­cien­cy, tar­get­ing more than 20% bet­ter fuel burn com­pared to com­mer­cial engines in ser­vice today.

CFM RISE pro­gram tech­nolo­gies are matur­ing toward ground and flight tests this decade with work under­way on air­craft and engine inte­gra­tion in col­lab­o­ra­tion with part­ners.

Hybrid elec­tric expe­ri­ence

GE Aero­space was first award­ed the NASA EPFD con­tract in 2021 to demon­strate flight readi­ness of hybrid elec­tric tech­nolo­gies for sin­gle-aisle air­craft. 

Sev­er­al key mile­stones have been achieved over the last decade for hybrid elec­tric tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment:

• 2016: an elec­tric motor-dri­ven pro­peller ground test
• 2022: The world’s first test of a megawatt-class and mul­ti-kilo­volt hybrid elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem in alti­tude con­di­tions up to 45,000 feet at the NASA Elec­tric Air­craft Test­bed facil­i­ty that sim­u­lat­ed sin­gle-aisle com­mer­cial flight
• 2025: Suc­cess­ful­ly demon­strat­ing a nar­row­body hybrid elec­tric con­fig­u­ra­tion with pow­er trans­fer and injec­tion in a mod­i­fied high-bypass tur­bo­fan engine – no ener­gy stor­age required – through the NASA HyTEC project

A strate­gic part­ner­ship and equi­ty invest­ment announced in 2025 with BETA Tech­nolo­gies to accel­er­ate hybrid elec­tric avi­a­tion includes plans to co-devel­op a hybrid elec­tric tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor for Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) appli­ca­tions.