The electric motor created by MIT engineers to power even large size aircrafts has the power of 1 megawatt. The motor might also be paired with a conventional jet engine to create a hybrid propulsion system. Until now, in fact, only small full-electric aircrafts have taken off, whereas to electrify larger and heavier jets, like airliners, megawatt motors are needed. The 1-megawatt motor developed by MIT might be a fundamental step towards this direction. For fully electric applications, the team provides the motor can be coupled with a source of electricity such as a battery or a fuel cell. Therefore, the motor could transform the electric energy into mechanical work to power the propellers of an aircraft. The electric machine might also be matched to a conventional turbofan jet engine to operate as hybrid drivetrain, providing electric propulsion during some flight phases. Zoltan Spakovszky, T. A. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT declared: No matter what we use as an energy carrier (batteries, hydrogen, ammonia, or sustainable aviation fuel) independent of all that, megawatt-class motors will be a key enabler for greening aviation”. The professor added: “This is hard engineering, in terms of co-optimizing individual components and making them compatible with each other while maximizing overall performance. To do this means we have to push the boundaries in materials, manufacturing, thermal management, structures and rotordynamics, and power electronics”. (Picture @Airbus SAS 2023)
