Wright WM2500 Electric Aircraft Engine Powered Up!
Wright is excited to announce one of the top achievements in our company's history: Wright’s WM2500 motor is powered up, controlled by our WV250 inverter:
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Members of the Wright team: Anup, Phil, Ethan, Andrew, Harry, and Earl, with the WM2500 Motor and four WV250 Inverters. Click on the image to watch the motor in action.
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What Did Wright Achieve?
Last Thursday we spun our WM2500 motor with our WV250 inverter.
- WM2500: Wright’s 2.5 megawatt motor that aims to be the most powerful and power-dense aerospace motor that’s ever been built.
- WV250: Wright’s inverter that aims to be the industry’s most power-dense and efficient.
- Both have been developed in part through the ARPA-E ASCEND program.
Why It's a Big Deal
WM2500 and WV250 engaged many employees at Wright, multiple contractors, and dozens of leading suppliers, partners, and sub-assembly shops, all pushing limits at multiple levels. For example, precision machining meant that we had to use a particular device of which there were only five in the entire United States!
Hooking up the two to work together required unit testing each system individually, linking the motor and inverter with hundreds of connection-points, and fine-tuning the firmware.
It was a multi-year, multi-disciplinary effort, and we are thrilled. Next steps are higher power testing, altitude chamber testing at NASA’s Electric Aircraft Testbed, thrust testing, and aircraft testing.
How DoE and NASA Are Advancing US Technological Leadership
One of the key purposes of US research agencies like DoE’s ARPA-E and NASA is to set visionary challenges and then fund US companies to solve them. As companies like Wright develop technologies to meet these goals, not only does the US get to kickstart entire new industries like electric aviation, but these efforts train thousands of engineers on how to be the best in the world. This is great for aerospace, and it’s also great for US industry.
We are grateful to the leadership at DoE’s ARPA-E and NASA for their continued support.
Wright Teammates
Thank you to Wright teammates Andrew, Anup, Briana, Colin, Deb, Earl, Elizabeth, Ethan, Harry, JP, Peter, Phil, Stephanie, and Zed for their incredible contributions!
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Thank you and have a great week.
Electrically,
Jeff and Team Wright
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