Singapore Airshow: Project Zero goes hybrid (video)

Singapore Airshow: Project Zero goes hybrid (video)

17th February 2016 –  by Tony Skinner in Singpore
https://youtu.be/Wlv-q_T95HA

The team behind the Project Zero tiltrotor is developing a hybrid drive that will use a diesel engine to supplement and recharge the aircraft’s batteries.

Displaying the Project Zero unmanned technology demonstrator in Asia for the first time at the Singapore Airshow, Finmeccanica is developing the hybrid system rather than wait for battery technology to improve.

‘The limitation of electric powered vertical aircraft is in the endurance,’ James Wang, senior vice-president services and marketing at Finmeccanica Helicopter Division, said.

‘Even with the state of the art lithium batteries… the endurance we are talking about is no more than ten minutes.’

The Project Zero tiltrotor features no transmission, no swashplate, and individual blade control, and was first displayed in public at the Paris Air Show in 2013.

‘We are trying to figure if we can run this like a hybrid car, that’s what we have been exploring,’ Wang explained.

‘We have already modified a turbo diesel engine such that we will run this in a hybrid mode. So take-off and landing will be electric power, supplemented by diesel power.

‘So in cruise flight, the batteries will be recharged by the diesel engine running  a constant max horsepower band. And the electric motor will be driven by the generators that will generate electric power from the diesel engine.’