Electric aviation doesn’t just have problems with batteries. Powerful and light electric motors also continue to be the dream of aviation designers. Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have proposed their own solution to this problem. The MIT electric motor promises 1 MW of power for its own weight of about 58 kg. With this decision, electric aviation will take off, literally and figuratively.

According to NASA calculations, the specific power of electric motors for medium-haul aircraft and large-capacity aircraft in general should be at least 13 kW/kg. Delivered by MIT engineers, the engine promises a specific power of 17 kW/kg, far better than NASA’s recommendations. Unfortunately, the new engine is not yet available pre-assembled. The developers have only tested some of their components so far.

Structurally, the new engine is, as it were, a deliberately twisted classic electric motor. Its rotor is not inside the stator, it surrounds it. At the heart of the rotor is a drum made of titanium, behind the inner walls of which permanent magnets are fixed. The stator of the new engine is a steel cylinder with a spiked surface. It is located inside the rotor, and the winding rests on the spikes in a special way.

Currents in the winding are controlled by complex power electronics from 30 custom-made “printed circuit boards”. The current supply to the windings, synchronized with the rotation of the drum, will enable the motor to reach record speeds. Such a design made it possible to avoid a huge production of rotors and stators, and significantly reduced the weight of the engine.

The heat removal system from the stator is also uniquely designed. The stator is connected to a heat sink with many through holes. At the end they look like honeycombs, and it is best to print such a knot on a 3D printer. The rotation of the rotor creates a flow of air in the engine volume and expels it. The offered engine will emit about 50 kW of heat at 1 MW full power. The proposed solution is claimed to be able to remove as much heat as possible from the engine. “from 500 100-watt incandescent lamps in the volume of a small beer keg” .

If such electric motors are made available to aircraft designers, the landscape of future aviation will change. All-electric aircraft may have a completely different design. For example, instead of a pair of large and powerful engines, in flight they will be able to rely on several smaller ones located on the leading edges of the wings and even in the fuselage. Moreover, this time may come long before the emergence of high-capacity batteries. Hybrid systems working with hydrogen or ammonia cells will help with this. An electric motor was missing to make this story happen, and now it’s very close to come.