GE Aerospace and partners conduct a test flight of a hybrid-electric aircraft at 30,000 feet

In collaboration with NASA, BETA Technologies and Boeing, GE Aerospace conducted a test flight of a hybrid-electric aircraft above 30,000 feet—the altitude typically used by passenger commercial aircraft. The flight demonstrated several new electric aircraft engine systems.

The team’s single longest flight in hybrid-electric operation was more than two hours.

“The aviation industry’s first high-altitude hybrid electric flight is one for the history books,” said H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., Chairman and CEO, GE Aerospace.

The record-breaking test campaign was enabled by GE Aerospace’s integrated megawatt-class and multi-kilovolt hybrid-electric propulsion system, which was developed through the NASA Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) project.

The right side of the EPFD aircraft, a Saab 340B, was modified for flight tests with a hybrid-electric system that fits inside an inverted nacelle, providing extra ventilation. The system includes GE Aerospace-developed motor/generators, power converters and inverters, controllers, Avio Aero gearboxes, Dowty propellers, Unison heat exchangers, torque sensing, engine harnesses, and a CT7 engine. BAE Systems provided the batteries, Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences supplied the complete nacelle, and BETA Technologies served as the systems integrator.

“This hybrid-electric system improved the high-altitude performance and climb capability while creating a flying laboratory to inform all future hybrid designs,” said Kyle Clark, founder and CEO of BETA. “The GE Aerospace team brought rigorous design, test and operational expertise. The ground and safe flight test campaigns, capped by a flight across the North Atlantic, is the first of many important milestones for hybrid-electric technology.”

Source: GE Aerospace