Post #1183464
2026-04-14 18:37 UTC
Just had a thought of the most useful thing about gas/electric hybrid aircraft motors: if (for piston aircraft: when) the gas engine dies, you at least have partial power until you run out of battery. Potentially enough to get you to a safe(r) landing spot.
That changes the calculus more in favor of hybrid-electric. Probably still not worth the weight, complexity, and financial penalties you’ll be taking on with that. Like, I still wouldn’t do this for my rv-9.
#ElectricAviation
Replies (1)
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@stonebear2@hachyderm.io 2026-04-14 18:51
@younata I've been mulling around in my head something like the diesel-electric drive on a locomotive... instead of a big low-rpm direct-drive engine, a small, high-rpm one driving a generator which could charge batteries and/or directly feed a lightweight annular motor... This has the advantage of, instead of a heavy, bulky PSRU in front of a fast-turning engine, your "PSRU" is some fat wires and a flat-plate motor... and you _could_ ditch the 24v generator and just have the big guy and split the power to an avionics battery and the prime mover batteries... or not, go redundant, and have separate buses for safety... No idea how cost-effective this would be.