SYDNEY - It might seem ambitious, but passenger airlines could be using electric aircraft for short trips within two years, an aviation expert has said. It comes as Rex Airlines announces plans to trial the emerging technology by 2024 on selected regional routes, Selina Green and Leon Georgiou report for ABC South East SA. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
4 August 2022 - Rex and Australian-headquartered Dovetail Electric Aviation (Dovetail) announced in July the formation of a strategic partnership to pioneer the conversion of turbine powered aircraft to electric, nil emission propulsion.
Rex will provide an aircraft to be used as a test bed for the project along with a raft of support facilities including engineering expertise, technical assistance, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) support as well as storage facilities and workforce accommodation.
Aircraft will be converted using MagniX engines for which Dovetail is the exclusive distributor in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Mediterranean Europe. Converted aircraft will be 30-40% quieter than their donor planes and will enjoy reduced operating costs of around 40%.
Dovetail will certify the entire propulsion system of an aircraft by integrating the electric motor, battery packs and hydrogen fuel cells into one ‘drive-train’ on an existing airframe. In doing so, it will generate unique IP in conversion engineering, testing technology and power plant machine learning to optimize powerplant performance.
Related: Collins Aerospace begins fabrication on 500KW electric motor for Airlander 10 aircraft
Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace
