ROLLS-ROYCE ADVANCES HYBRID-ELECTRIC FLIGHT WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY

Rolls-Royce is to devel­op tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor tech­nol­o­gy which includes a new small engine designed for hybrid-elec­tric appli­ca­tions.

The sys­tem will be an on-board pow­er source with scal­able pow­er and will com­ple­ment the Rolls-Royce Elec­tri­cal propul­sion port­fo­lio, enabling extend­ed range on sus­tain­able avi­a­tion fuels, and lat­er as it becomes avail­able through hydro­gen com­bus­tion.

Cur­rent bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy means all-elec­tric propul­sion will enable eVTOL and fixed wing com­muter air­craft for short flights in and between cities and island-hop­ping in loca­tions like Nor­way and the Scot­tish Isles.

By devel­op­ing tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor tech­nol­o­gy, pow­er range is scaled between 500‑1200 kW to open up longer routes that elec­tric bat­tery pow­ered air­craft can also sup­port.

Rolls-Royce experts in Ger­many, Nor­way and Hun­gary are devel­op­ing the tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor design and work­ing on its sys­tem inte­gra­tion, focussing on smart pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion dur­ing flight.

The tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor will recharge bat­ter­ies after take-off or pow­er the pro­pellers direct­ly, enabling air­craft to switch between pow­er sources in flight, with research and devel­op­ment of this tech­nol­o­gy being part fund­ed by the Ger­man Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Cli­mate Action.

Rolls Royce Elec­tri­cal pres­i­dent Rob Wat­son said: “Rolls-Royce will be the lead­ing provider of all-elec­tric and hybrid-elec­tric pow­er and propul­sion sys­tems for advanced air mobil­i­ty (AAM) and will scale this tech­nol­o­gy over time to larg­er plat­forms.

“I would like to thank the Ger­man Gov­ern­ment for their sup­port. As part of our strat­e­gy, we offer a com­plete sus­tain­able solu­tion for our cus­tomers, which means extend­ing routes that elec­tric flight can sup­port through our tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor tech­nol­o­gy.

“This will advance hybrid-elec­tric flight and mean more pas­sen­gers will be able to trav­el fur­ther on low to net zero emis­sions air­craft. Rolls-Royce is also set to build on its exist­ing net­work to offer main­te­nance ser­vices for elec­tri­cal sys­tems.

“Fur­ther­more, Rolls-Royce Pow­er Sys­tems is able to offer MTU-brand micro­grid solu­tions to sup­port fast-charg­ing of elec­tric air­craft and deliv­er reli­able, cost-effec­tive, cli­mate friend­ly and sus­tain­able pow­er to ver­ti­ports.”

Last year, Rolls-Royce announced a path­way to net zero car­bon emis­sions and its elec­tri­cal tech­nol­o­gy is one way in which the com­pa­ny is help­ing decar­bonise crit­i­cal parts of the glob­al econ­o­my. Rolls-Royce is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing its new prod­ucts will be com­pat­i­ble with net zero oper­a­tion by 2030 and all its prod­ucts will be com­pat­i­ble with net zero by 2050.

In Feb­ru­ary, Rolls-Royce and Roland Berg­er released a mar­ket study into the poten­tial of the AAM Mar­ket for the APAC region, which includes Aus­tralia, Chi­na, India, Japan, Sin­ga­pore, South Korea and New Zealand.

A few days pre­vi­ous­ly, Rolls-Royce said it would col­lab­o­rate on the devel­op­ment of a planned net­work of ver­ti­ports with Lux­avi­a­tion Group, which will include elec­tri­fi­ca­tion and dig­i­tal solu­tions, and main­te­nance sup­port ser­vices.