electric aircraft
taking place in an
enclosed test cell,
turning against a
dynamometer. “That
allows you to test in a safe,
enclosed fashion. There’s no
turning, no propeller and a lot of
sensors – temperature, vibration,
noise, power. We can ensure the motor
performs the way we’ve designed it to,”
Ganzarski says.
IRON BIRD
This month MagniX expects to start testing using its
iron bird. The iron bird has been developed from the
front end of an aircraft, which has had most of its
equipment removed and replaced with the electric motor
attached directly to the propeller.
Ganzarski says, “The iron bird testing allows us to go
beyond testing the motor. We can test the whole system:
the motor, cooling, propeller, governor. This is great
because it allows for realistic testing right before flight.
“Then, in August we’ll move from the
iron bird to integrating the system into the
seaplanes and Alice. From there we’ll start
ground testing the planes, start low-speed
and then high-speed taxiing, before
takeoff and then in-flight testing.”
The first test flight is expected to take
place this November with certification of
the motors expected by the end of 2021 and entry
into service by 2022.
The certification requirements are yet
to be made clear, but Ganzarski expects his
propulsion systems to be held to the same
stringent reliability, consistency and safety
levels that the global regulatory authorities
“Regulatory bodies have
expect from today’s
non-electric
systems.“We expect
nothing to be easier
because we’re trying
something new – on the
contrary we expect to
have to prove the electric
aspect thoroughly, that
the batteries are safe and
our aircraft are as reliable
and safe as traditional
craft today, he says.
60 JUNE \\ AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
TESTING THE TESTERS
The move from traditional to electric propulsion
has required test engineers to upskill and for
departments to recruit for skills they haven’t
needed before.
Todd Spierling, chief engineer for advanced
technology at United Technologies Advanced
Projects (UTAP) notes that the breadth of
knowledge test engineers need has become
much greater.
“Hydraulic flight controls had very little interaction
with electrical systems on earlier craft but that’s no
longer the case. As the systems become more complex
the number of behavioural modes goes up by an
order of magnitude, so our test engineers need to be
able to address all these different situations,” he says.
“Automation, scripting and data analysis are all skill sets
that have had to evolve as we have to validate all these
cases by running endless tests and interpret that data,”
he adds.
For Glenn Llewellyn, Airbus’s general manager,
electrification, it’s been the move to much higher voltage
levels that’s required the acquisition of new skillsets in
his teams.
“High power energy storage, integration of batteries,
they’re definitely new ares we’ve upskilled in. We’ve
got a lot of competency at Airbus from our activities in
space, where we’ve been designing batteries for satellite
applications that need to last years, sometimes decades.
But for high power electric motors and power distribution
we’ve brought in talent from the rail and energy supply
industries, who’ve had experience in these areas.”
a very hard job to do”
REGULATION VERSUS INNOVATION
Ganzarski doesn’t believe it is possible for regulation
to keep up with innovation, nor should they
attempt to. “It’s easy for industry to downplay and
criticise regulatory bodies for not being flexible, or
fast enough, but they have a very hard job, they have
to ensure that things are safe.
“However, I do expect that they learn what’s going
on ahead of time, so when the time comes to certify
they’re ready to go. We’re working with the FAA and
they’re very much leaning forward, trying to learn about
electronic propulsion.
“Regulators learned a tough lesson with drones. They
didn’t know what regulations were needed and there was
chaos. But we’ve been in conversation with several
regulatory bodies for some time and they’ve been
learning, testing, evaluating. They’ve already begun to
put together the precursors of what the future
regulations will be.”\\
4 // The MagniX motor is
to power Eviation’s
electric aircraft Alice
5 // Todd Spierling, the
chief engineer for
advanced technology at
United Technologies
Advanced Projects
6 // Roei Ganzarski, chief
executive of electric
propulsion firm MagniX
7 // The MagniX motor is
being rigorously tested in
enclosed cells
4
7
6
5
/AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM