magniX’s electric powertrain to charge Up NASA’s Electric Flight Program

mag­niX, a com­pa­ny at the fore­front of the elec­tric avi­a­tion rev­o­lu­tion, revealed the De Hav­il­land DHC‑7 (Dash 7) air­craft. This air­craft will under­go a retro­fit with mag­niX’s indus­try-lead­ing elec­tric pow­er­trains, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant step in NASA’s Elec­tri­fied Pow­er­train Flight Demon­stra­tion pro­gram (EPFD).

The air­craft, show­cased at a cer­e­mo­ny in Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton, proud­ly dis­played the logos of mag­niX, NASA, and Air Tin­di, the provider of the Dash 7. This unveil­ing high­lights the lat­est progress in a pro­gram that has achieved sev­er­al mile­stones in 2024.

Mile­stones Achieved

• In Feb­ru­ary, mag­niX suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed the Pre­lim­i­nary Design Review (PDR), estab­lish­ing the blue­print for retro­fitting the Dash 7 with mag­niX’s elec­tric pow­er­trains
• In April, a magni650 elec­tric engine suc­cess­ful­ly con­clud­ed the ini­tial phase of test­ing at NASA’s Elec­tric Air­craft Test­bed (NEAT) facil­i­ty in San­dusky, Ohio. These tests val­i­dat­ed the magni650’s excep­tion­al per­for­mance at alti­tudes reach­ing 27,500 feet.
• In June, base­line flight tests for the Dash 7 were final­ized, pro­vid­ing cru­cial per­for­mance data before the air­craft is mod­i­fied with mag­niX’s tech­nol­o­gy.

Accel­er­at­ing Towards Sus­tain­able Avi­a­tion

The next phase of EPFD involves replac­ing one of the air­craft’s four tur­bine engines with a mag­niX elec­tric pow­er­train, with test flights sched­uled for 2026. Sub­se­quent­ly, a sec­ond tur­bine engine will be replaced with anoth­er mag­niX pow­er­train. This con­fig­u­ra­tion is pro­ject­ed to reduce fuel con­sump­tion by up to 40%.

Quotes from Key Stake­hold­ers

• “mag­niX and NASA are demon­strat­ing that sus­tain­able flight is achiev­able with tech­nol­o­gy avail­able today,” stat­ed Ben Lox­ton, mag­niX’s VP of EPFD and Elec­tric Stor­age Sys­tems (ESS). “The EPFD pro­gram is accel­er­at­ing its readi­ness for entry into ser­vice, pri­or­i­tiz­ing safe­ty and the high­est stan­dards of per­for­mance.”
• “As EPFD makes out­stand­ing progress, mag­niX and NASA are prov­ing the fea­si­bil­i­ty of elec­tric propul­sion for com­mer­cial flight,” said Reed Mac­don­ald, CEO of mag­niX. “Inte­grat­ing our game-chang­ing elec­tric pow­er­trains into a region­al air­lin­er such as the Dash 7 rep­re­sents a major step for­ward in bring­ing elec­tric solu­tions into the busi­ness of avi­a­tion.”
• “We at NASA are excit­ed about EPFD’s poten­tial to make avi­a­tion sus­tain­able and more acces­si­ble to more U.S. com­mu­ni­ties,” said Robert A. Pearce, asso­ciate admin­is­tra­tor for NASA’s Aero­nau­tics Research Mis­sion Direc­torate. “Hybrid elec­tric propul­sion on a megawatt scale accel­er­ates U.S. progress toward its goal of net-zero green­house gas emis­sions by 2050, ben­e­fit­ting all who rely on air trans­porta­tion every day.”

About mag­niX

Head­quar­tered in Everett, Wash­ing­ton State, U.S., mag­niX is at the fore­front of devel­op­ing pow­er­trains and bat­ter­ies for the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of trans­porta­tion. mag­niX’s com­pre­hen­sive elec­tric pow­er­train offers cus­tomers an inte­grat­ed solu­tion for elec­tri­fy­ing air­craft. mag­niX bat­ter­ies pro­vide a safe and prac­ti­cal solu­tion for bat­tery elec­tric and hybrid elec­tric air­craft and are also well-suit­ed to pow­er heli­copters, eVTOLs, and marine craft.

Part­ing Thought

The unveil­ing of the Dash 7 demon­stra­tor air­craft sig­nals a piv­otal moment in the elec­tric avi­a­tion rev­o­lu­tion. mag­niX’s col­lab­o­ra­tion with NASA is not only push­ing the bound­aries of tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion but also active­ly shap­ing a future where sus­tain­able avi­a­tion is a real­i­ty. As we wit­ness the inte­gra­tion of elec­tric pow­er­trains into com­mer­cial air­craft, we are one step clos­er to a green­er and more effi­cient avi­a­tion indus­try.

Learn more about mag­niX’s elec­tric pow­er­train tech­nol­o­gy.
Read about NASA’s Elec­tri­fied Pow­er­train Flight Demon­stra­tion pro­gram.

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