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Completed TRL 4 (started at 2, targeting 4)
Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) proposes to evaluate and design a traction inverter for megawatt-class aerospace applications. A specific weight reduction of 2- to 3-fold, and improved efficiency, with respect to the current state of the art, are desired. Specifically, the solicitation calls for the development of aircraft traction inverters operating in the 1,000- to 3,000V range at 500 to 2,000 A. Further target specifications include a specific power of 20 kW/kG, and an efficiency of 99.5% at full scale. With the level of analysis and design variation that come with increasing the scale of aircraft-grade inverters, ESAero proposes to conduct a trade study on component and subsystem selection, design, and creating a Bill of Materials for a 1,000-1,200V traction inverter with specifications of for fixed-wing and rotorcraft applications. This project aims to bring the technology to a readiness level between 3 and 4, preparing it for prototype design and fabrication in later work. The proposed project will focus on meeting the following specifications based on subtopic A1.04
The proposed traction inverter is applicable to all high-power electric propulsion based aircraft for NASA applications. The full-scale technical targets are to reach All-Electric Megawatt-Class Vehicles and could be designed to fit with SUSAN in a future effort.
ESAero has identified that a traction inverter is applicable for use in advanced air mobility passenger vehicles as well as large unmanned air vehicles based on multi-rotor electric propulsion architecture.
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