Company TIGON Enertec Inc.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP

INITIAL LIGHT BULB Four CU-Boulder aerospace grad students--Alec Velazco, Cody Humbargar, Eric Serani and Derek Hillery--studying under Jean Koster developed a hybrid propulsion system for aircraft and spun it off as startup TIGON Enertec last year.

"Koster asked them, 'Can you make a hybrid unmanned aerial vehicle?'" says CEO Les Makepeace, who came on board last August. The team did exactly that, launching a prototype in spring 2010.

The company is a member of the eSpace Incubator at the Center for Space Entrepreneurship in Boulder.

IN A NUTSHELL Currently, the engines on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are either electric, which are light and quiet but have a limited battery life, or heavier, louder, but longer-range internal-combustion motors. Existing hybrid technologies that utilize two torque inputs are either too complex and therefore expensive or heavy for UAVs, "so they invented a new way and called it a clutchless parallel hybrid," Makepeace says. "It's much simpler than a Prius."

As UAVs have no pilot and usually follow the same route on each flight, there were less constraints on designing a new propulsion system for them. "It's not like there's a pilot saying, 'That was a little jerky,'" Makepeace says.

While the system offers improved energy efficiency, that's not the primary market driver, Makepeace says. "The market driver is it's quieter. At night, you can't see it, and when you go to electric, you can't hear it. You don't want to influence the activity you're trying to observe." Larger aircraft with TIGON Enertec's system can realize more fuel savings, plus enjoy the benefit of safety inherent in having two propulsion systems.

While initial systems will utilize a gas motor and an electric motor and put out two...