Fresh off the heels of last week’s announcement about Wright's WM2500 2.5 MW motor spinning freely, we are excited to announce that our WV250 aerospace inverter, built with support from ARPA-E and NASA, is also running. Designed to pair with WM2500, WV250 is a 250 kilowatt (kW) ultra-lightweight and ultra-efficient inverter designed for aerospace applications up to 40,000 ft. 

Inverters are a key part of any electric propulsion system: they convert DC electricity from batteries/fuel cells into the AC electricity that motors use, and they regulate the flow of electricity to the motor. At a more practical level, they impact the powertrain in two ways:

• Weight: Each WM2500 motor has eight inverters (this is for redundancy - if one fails, there are seven still running). Our current inverter test article weighs 17 lbs and has a specific power of 35 kW/kg with a path to further reduce mass. An aircraft like Elysian’s, with eight megawatt (MW)-class motors, might have 12 MW of installed power, for a total weight of 960 lbs of WV250 inverters. Existing aviation inverters might be 14 kW/kg. This means that aircraft using Wright’s inverters can save up to 1,000 lbs. They can use this extra capacity to carry extra passengers, cargo, or batteries. 
• Efficiency: Wright’s inverter is designed to be 99% efficient. Other aerospace inverters are 97% efficient. In a 12 MW powertrain like the one described above, this 2% delta can mean 240 kW of heat that would otherwise have to be dissipated using heat exchangers. Wright’s 99% efficient inverters reduce the need for heavy and un-aerodynamic heat exchangers, further reducing weight. 

We are testing WV250 with our first generation motor initially as we conduct parallel testing with our WM2500 motor. Once we have tested each component separately, then we will integrate WV250 with WM2500 for a complete package. 

If you would like to receive a WV250 or WM2500 for evaluation, please reply to this email. Kudos to the team on these incredible achievements! 

Wright Dynamo Demo December 17
 

Wright is conducting a demonstration of the Dynamo compact 30 kW generator & aircraft start cart on December 17th in Florida. If you are connected to the DoD and would like to join in person or remotely, feel free to reply to this email. 

Wright at CES January 7-10 Las Vegas
 

Wright was selected to be highlighted in the ARPA-E booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January in Las Vegas, NV. If you are attending and would like to meet up, feel free to reply to this email.