Program aims to develop new high-voltage distribution
technologies for future hybrid-electric aircraft
LONDON, July 22,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Farnborough Air Show — Collins
Aerospace, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, today announced the
European Union's Clean Aviation HECATE project has achieved
Preliminary Design Review (PDR). The HECATE consortium is comprised
of multiple European aerospace industry partners, including
Collins, Safran, Airbus Defence and Space, Leonardo and several
universities. Collins, through its Applied Research &
Technology organization and Power & Controls business, leads
the project's steering committee, while Safran serves as technical
coordinator.
HECATE, which stands for Hybrid-ElectriC regional Aircraft
distribution TEchnologies, has accomplished a number of milestones
toward its ultimate goal of demonstrating a 500kW hybrid-electric
architecture in ground tests at TRL5
by 2025. In cooperation with the consortium partners, Collins has
achieved PDR for the project's power conversion and secondary
distribution systems, while Safran has achieved PDR for the primary
distribution, power management systems and cabling. Airbus Defence
& Space and Leonardo continue to provide the airframer
perspective, supporting requirements and validation activities. All
top-level project requirements, including the electrical
distribution architecture, have been defined and the program is on
track to achieve TRL4 and Critical
Design Review by year's end.
"Hybrid-electric aircraft are a central pillar of the aviation
industry's drive to reduce carbon emissions, yet in order for these
aircraft to fly, they will require new distribution technologies
that can support significantly higher voltages," said Mauro Atalla, senior vice president, Engineering
& Technology for Collins. "Working together with our HECATE
consortium partners, we're breaking new ground in the maturation of
these critical, enabling technologies and progressing on schedule.
Public-private partnerships like Clean Aviation are essential to
bringing new, sustainable aviation technologies to market, and we
look forward to flight testing HECATE under a potential Clean
Aviation Phase 2 program."
"HECATE, targeting to develop a novel power distribution
network, is at the core of a future hybrid-electric aircraft
development where significantly higher voltages and electrical
power have to be managed compared to conventional aircraft," said
Costin-Ciprian Miglan, project officer for HECATE at Clean
Aviation. "The project has achieved a very important
milestone with the preliminary design reviews
successfully passed for all primary and secondary distribution key
sub-systems. This tremendous work is the result of the proactive
cooperation of 37 partners across 10 European countries."
This work was funded by UK Research and Innovation under the UK
government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant number
10067978].
About Collins Aerospace
Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, is a leader in integrated and
intelligent solutions for the global aerospace and defense
industry. Our 80,000 employees are dedicated to delivering
future-focused technologies to advance sustainable and connected
aviation, passenger safety and comfort, mission success, space
exploration and more.
About RTX
With more than 185,000 global employees, RTX pushes the limits of
technology and science to redefine how we connect and protect our
world. Through industry-leading businesses – Collins Aerospace,
Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon – we are advancing aviation,
engineering integrated defense systems, and developing
next-generation technology solutions and manufacturing to help
global customers address their most critical challenges. The
company, with 2023 sales of $69
billion, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
About Clean Aviation
The Clean Aviation Joint
Undertaking is the European Union's leading research and innovation
programme for transforming aviation towards a sustainable and
climate-neutral future. It is a European public-private
partnership. The programme's disruptive clean aviation
technologies will help reduce CO2 of short-medium range aircraft by
no less than 30% and -50% for regional range aircraft.
For questions or to schedule an interview, please contact
corporatepr@rtx.com
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