Hinetics LLC out of Champaign, IL just landed a Phase I STTR grant from the Air Force for $149,890 to develop modeling tools and a control scheme for boosting eVTOL power-train performance.
In less jargony terms, electronic vertical takeoff aircraft need a lot more power during takeoff than they do while cruising. Right now engineers peg the max power rating based on fixed steady-state ratings of the components, rather than a model-based control scheme that keeps track of the actual state of those electrical components, largely heat.
Hinetics was founded in 2017 as a spin-off from the University of Illinois to commercialize technology developed with the support from NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technologies Program. It is located at Research Park in Urbana-Champaign. The company is focused on patent-pending “air-core” magnetics technology that increases the power-to-weight ratio of electrical machines. They have two primary approaches: high field superconducting machines for low speed applications, like wind turbines, and high-frequency permanent magnet machines for relatively high speed applications, like aerospace.
According to their website they have developed one product: an electric propulsor specifically designed for the NASA STARC-ABL turboelectric sub-sonic passenger aircraft concept. NASA awarded Hinetics a 2018 Phase I and 2020 Phase II SBIR grant for the development of the electric propulsor. Combined, the grants were for $864,036. The National Science Foundation also granted the firm a 2018 SBIR Phase I for $219,444 to design actively shielded superconducting generators for large wind turbines.
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