Tag Archives: aircraft

Magnix has designed a range of batteries for electric aviation. The first product of the line, Samson300, is focussed on maximum energy density, according to the company, achieving 300Wh/kg. A cycle life of over 1,000 full-depth discharge cycles is claimed. “Patented safety technologies include cell level protections from thermal runaway and ability to store batteries for long periods at zero charge,” ...

American Aerospace Technologies has won an FAA waiver and exemption to fly its unmanned aircraft commercially beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight over the San Joaquin Valley, California. The AiRanger aircraft has a 5.7m wingspan, weights 100kg and can fly for 12 hours or 1,200km. Power comes from an 8hp engine. Rules constrain its altitude to 8,000feet (~2,500m) and a ~11,000km2 ...

Intending to map the ground from small aircraft and drones, researchers in China have made a singe-photon radar. It achieves resolution better than 40cm from 2.1km altitude using around two photons per pixel, in the face of 10,000 daylight noise photons per pixel. Created by the University of Science and Technology of China, the lidar combines three 150mA 1.55μm lasers ...

Microchip is aiming at 15kVA actuators in more-electric aircraft with a pair of three-phase power drive assemblies with silicon carbide power components. Both consists of a power module soldered to driver board “The companion gate driver boards are designed to be integrated with [power] modules to provide an all-in-one motor drive solution for the electrification of systems such as flight ...

Teledyne has introduced a high-voltage connector system for use up to 13.5kV and 70,000 feet (21km) altitude. Called DHM, they use the company’s self-contained ‘Hi/Mate’ inserts, pre-wired inside sub-D housings and back-shells – they are only available made-up onto cables. “These inserts leverage Teledyne’s advanced interface sealing system, rendering them suitable for a wide range of aerospace and defense electronic ...

Mouser Electronics and Texas Instruments have teamed up to explore the challenges of electric urban air transportation (think: ‘big drones’) in a 26 page ebook. “Over the next ten years, the urban air mobility market will mature sufficiently to make short distance, point-to-point travel commonplace and affordable in densely populated areas through driver-less air taxis,” according to Mouser. “The five chapters ...

High-altitude 4G-5G basestation company Stratospheric Platforms (SPL) has received investment from the largest telecommunication infrastructure company in Indonesia, PT Profesional Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Protelindo). Its value is not being disclosed. SPL’s aim is to create hydrogen-powered aircraft which carry multi-beam 5G basestations that can each cover thousands of square km. Indonesia is spread over 17,000 islands and 1.9million square km. “This ...

BT and Stratospheric Platforms are to test phased array antennas designed to provide 4G and 5G coverage from stratospheric aircraft into the wilds. “This partnership will build on SPL’s world-first 5G demonstration from the stratosphere in 2022,” said SPL CEO Richard Deakin. Funded by Innovate UK, the trials will be at BT’s labs at Adastral Park and “could offer transformational ...

Microchip has announced a range of integrated power modules for applications including more-electric aircraft (MEA). Output power rating starts at 5kVA. Little hard information is yet available, but the company has said there will be 12 variants with either silicon carbide mosfets or IGBTs. One possible configuration “The configurable power devices include a three-bridge topology that is available in SiC ...

Harwin has added male flying leas options to its Kona high-power compact connector range, rated at 1.5kV and 60A per contact. All the new parts are suited to 8AWG wire. “This addition makes it possible to bring male and female cables together for the first time in a cable-to-cable arrangement, whereas previously we were only offering Kona in cable-to-board options,” ...