Toshiba ESS Corporation has applied all of its experience in the field of nuclear and thermal technologies and developed a prototype of a lightweight and powerful superconducting electric motor for “mobile applications”. The new electric motor weighs ten times less than fossil fuel engines of comparable power. A similar combination of characteristics will be appreciated in aviation and in the new field of air taxi with vertical takeoff and landing.
Image Source: Toshiba ESS
Toshiba’s prototype superconducting electric motor measures 50 x 70 cm (excluding the shaft) and has a power of 2 MW. The company intends to start commercial production of such engines at the end of this decade. The superconducting motor was developed by a group of engineers and experts at Toshiba ESS’s Keihin Operations division, which has experience in designing and manufacturing generators and superconducting products for nuclear and thermal power applications.
An electric propulsion system using the effect of superconductivity (probably, we are talking regarding high-temperature superconductivity) will save battery power in flight due to higher efficiency and lower current resistance losses. According to experts, superconducting electric motors in aviation can save up to 30% of fuel compared to traditional technical solutions.
It is interesting to note that in Russia also being developed a promising hybrid superconducting power plant with a capacity of 2 MW, but so far on the Yak-40 laboratory aircraft at the airfield of the Novosibirsk Federal State Unitary Enterprise SibNIA im. S. A. Chaplygin runs in superconducting electric motor with a power of 500 kW.
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