Intergalactic launches eVTOL thermal management system

Inter­galac­tic has launched GS1-EV Eagle5, a ful­ly inte­grat­ed ther­mal man­age­ment sys­tem for cool­ing the cab­in and bat­ter­ies of eVTOL air­craft, the first off-the-shelf ther­mal man­age­ment sys­tem designed specif­i­cal­ly for the elec­tric avi­a­tion indus­try.

“Ther­mal man­age­ment is a crit­i­cal chal­lenge in get­ting urban air mobil­i­ty and region­al elec­tric flight off the ground,” said Inter­galac­tic CEO Bri­an McCann. “Pri­or to this, there was no stan­dard solu­tion for cool­ing occu­pants and elec­tric bat­ter­ies on eVTOL air­craft.”

Eagle5 uses a pumped two-phase archi­tec­ture to deliv­er vari­able cool­ing in a light­weight pack­age to reg­u­late the con­stant­ly chang­ing tem­per­a­tures of air­craft elec­tron­ics, com­part­ments, cab­ins, and elec­tric bat­ter­ies.

A pumped two-phase loop and a ther­mal capac­i­tor con­nects with a micro­tube heat exchang­er, phase-change ther­mal mate­ri­als, and con­trols to opti­mise per­for­mance and reli­a­bil­i­ty.

“Our two-phase sys­tem design accounts for vari­able and peak heat loads with­out devel­op­ing an over­ly heavy sys­tem,” added Inter­galac­tic CTO Nick Kaiser.

“We are mov­ing beyond the days of ana­logue ther­mal sys­tems that con­sumed much of the mass, vol­ume, and pow­er bud­get to account for sit­u­a­tions that occur maybe 5% of the time. Eagle5 pro­vides the right approach where reli­a­bil­i­ty is a must and ounces mat­ter.”

Eagle5 is mod­u­lar and scal­able for larg­er elec­tric region­al air­craft or split into a sep­a­rate cab­in envi­ron­men­tal con­trol sys­tem and bat­tery ther­mal man­age­ment sys­tem. The pumped two-phase archi­tec­ture can also be mod­i­fied into sin­gle-phase liq­uid cool­ing and heat­ing.

Kaiser con­clud­ed: “Some­day soon we will fly over ground traf­fic in air taxis, and we want our ther­mal man­age­ment solu­tions to be a key part in mak­ing that expe­ri­ence safe and reli­able for every­one.

“We are on the verge of a new era in space and sky, with inno­va­tion hap­pen­ing at a rate not seen since the Space Race, but inno­va­tion requires break­ing bar­ri­ers, and in space and avi­a­tion, heat bar­ri­ers are among the most for­mi­da­ble. Inter­galac­tic has the small­est, light­est, and most advanced ther­mal man­age­ment solu­tions in the space, defense, and com­mer­cial avi­a­tion sec­tors.”