RTX, a leading aerospace and defense company, has achieved a significant milestone in its hybrid-electric flight demonstrator program. The company successfully completed a rated power test of the program’s 1 megawatt (MW) electric motor, developed by Collins Aerospace, a business unit of RTX. This motor, along with a highly efficient thermal engine developed by Pratt & Whitney, will be part of a hybrid-electric propulsion system aimed at demonstrating a 30% improvement in fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions compared to current regional turboprops.
Compared to Collins’ most advanced electric motor generators currently in use, the 1MW motor offers four times the power, twice the voltage, half the heat loss, and half the weight. Collins is developing the motor at its facility in Solihull, United Kingdom, and conducting tests at the University of Nottingham’s Institute for Aerospace Technology.