MOTORS AND ROTORS: ELECTRIC ENGINES PROPELLING MILITARY INTO NEW AGE OF AVIATION.

• Author: Heckmann, Laura

One hundred twenty years ago, Orville and Wilbur Wright launched the aviation revolution off the beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with the first successful flight of a motor-powered airplane. Decades later, the jet engine ushered in its second age, revolutionizing both air travel and military aviation following World War II.

Today, electric propulsion is powering the third revolution, and the U.S. military is paying attention.

The next revolution is full of futuristic, spidery-looking vehicles called electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft. The drone-like vehicles use electric power to takeoff, hover and land vertically, relying on electric propulsion motors where the power source can either be fully electric--using solely batteries--or hybrid electric--a combination of batteries, fuel-powered engines and generators. The motors are quieter, lighter and more environmentally friendly than the conventional turbo engines used by helicopters.

The concept has taken the commercial sector by storm, with more than 800 designs and counting tracked by the Vertical Flight Society's World eVTOL Aircraft Directory. The designs and operating methods are as varied as their intended uses, from air taxis alleviating traffic congestion to delivery services gliding across the ocean.

The Defense Department not only has its eye on the technology but formed an entire program around it.

The AFWERX Agility Prime program is a vertical lift program launched by the Air Force in 2020. Designed as a collaborative initiative, the program was built to work alongside industry to swap resources and talent with the intent of accelerating testing, experimentation and ultimately "rapid and affordable fielding" of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, an AFWERX fact sheet stated.

The Defense Department's interest in eVTOL began with a simple explanation: everyone else was.

The Defense Department needs to be involved early on in the latest and greatest technology, "to not only build up additional capability, but have it to leverage," Lt. Col. Thomas Meagher, AFWERX Prime division chief, said in an interview.

"We want to make sure that from a long-term look, we establish really good, strong leadership in the global market for this technology so that we can utilize it across the DoD... as it matures and as the concepts move on throughout the next couple of years," he said.

So, what can eVTOL aircraft do for the military?

Exploring what that...