The U.S. Air Force has awarded Wright Electric a contract to develop high-power output rechargeable batteries. Under the Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research contract announced on August 7, the New York-based start-up will explore options for using its new thermal batteries to power multi-rotor uncrewed air vehicles.
The support from the Air Force’s Afwerx research and technology unit follows funding for related work from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E Propel-1K program to develop lightweight batteries for transportation applications. If the Afwerx project progresses to Phase 2, the Wright team would then focus on testing and evaluation of its batteries.
According to Wright’s CEO Jeff Engler, the company’s thermal batteries are derived from its work to produce megawatt-hour-size batteries that can deliver 1,000 watt-hours-per-kilogram in battery packs to support future all-electric airliners. They will use a different chemistry as the company seeks to offer rechargeable batteries that would be more sustainable and economically viable than the single-use batteries the U.S. military already uses in missiles. Wright’s team will be supported by scientists from Columbia University in New York City.
Engler told AIN that exploring options for its battery technology beyond the civil air transport sector could improve prospects for getting it to market sooner than the FAA approval process would allow. He said that initial applications for the Department of Defense include the need to have a lot of power available at an ultra-high discharge rate.
Wright intends to use additive manufacturing techniques to quickly produce small volumes of compact rechargeable batteries that can be used in place of legacy thermal batteries to ensure a resilient supply chain of critical defense components. “Instead of advancing a completely new battery chemistry, our aim is to develop a process that will let us do limited production runs of exotic batteries, ensuring a resilient supply chain of critical defense components,” said the company’s engineering manager, Aaron Rowe.
2.5MW Electric Motor Set to Start Tests
Meanwhile, Wright is stepping up its work to develop a 2.5-megawatt electric motor called the WM2500 for future commercial airliners. This is expected to deliver a power density of 16 kilowatts-per-kilogram and would be able to be used for either a turboprop or turbofan propulsion system.
The company recently completed the construction of the first rotating rotor unit for the WM2500 and is now making the stationary stator part. Its aim is to have the final assembly complete before the end of the summer before starting laboratory tests using a custom-built dynamometer before moving the motor to NASA’s Electric Aircraft Testbed for altitude chamber testing. The project has support from the ARPA-E Ascend program.