As joint recipient of a £10,000 Under 30s grant from manufacturing specialist Get It Made, the funding has enabled the Midlands-based business to accelerate its transition towards prototype testing.
Company co-founder and CEO Radovan Gallo explained that its FLUX-75 electric propulsion system is being developed to be a ‘direct bolt-on replacement’ for the Rotax 912 engine common to small aircraft.
“It is split into two major components – the firewall forward package that replaces the combustion engine and a modular battery pack that replaces fuel tanks,” he said. “The installation process is relatively straightforward, but it is easiest to do for newly built aircraft as they are being assembled.”
Gallo continued: “That is where we see most of our demand and customer interest coming from, light aircraft manufacturers looking to offer an electric variant of their existing aircraft types.”
Gallo added that Flux Aviation will focus next on aftermarket retrofits of aircraft that are already flying.
“We are also exploring ways we could support the kit-built aircraft community with a powertrain system to install themselves during the build,” he said.
Set for launch in 2024, Flux-75 has been designed to provide 75kW of power, give over 60 minutes of flight time (plus reserve), comes in 60V, 400V, 800V system architecture, and provides 1500 hours of service life. Once fitted, the unit maintains the weight and balance of the aircraft. The total cost of ownership is reduced by 40 per cent compared to a Rotax 912 engine.
Gallo added that the flying experience with an electric propulsion system ‘will improve massively’ for pilots and passengers.
He said: “Quieter flying with less vibration makes for a much more peaceful and relaxing experience. Being a mechanically simpler system, there are fewer things to check before each flight.
“Our aim is to make an electric airplane handle the same as a combustion engined one. Being electric, we have much more torque available instantly, but we are controlling it in software to mimic the response of a combustion engine to avoid unexpected behaviour for pilots new to the system.”
Flux’s initial step towards electrification of the sector will begin with 2-seat and 4-seat light aircraft before moving up to 50-seat regional airliners.
“We are already doing R&D for a much larger system that will power regional and commuter aircraft, especially focusing on electrifying older generation turboprops,” said Gallo. “The jump to commercial aviation space comes with much tougher requirements on performance, safety and redundancy. But we are using everything we are learning in general aviation to come up with next-generation solutions.”
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I think that a network inclusive of the vehicles on it would make sense. However it remains to be seen if there is any plan for it to be for the...