Central Illinois startup Hinetics concluded full speed tests of its 300 kW prototype electric aircraft motor this past June. Then in July they had a visit from NASA scientists to show off their work.
The team received a go-ahead and cost extension in January of this year from NASA Glenn’s Power & Propulsion group to build a 1 MW direct-drive motor and develop it into an integrated propulsor.
Kiruba Sivasubramaniam Haran, Hinetics CTO
“We have come a long way from our initial efforts, with our third-generation motor ready to go on the test stand this summer,” said Kiruba Sivasubramaniam Haran in a LinkedIn post. He refused requests for an interview. He is a founder and CTO of Hinetics as well as engineering faculty at U of I, Urbana-Champaign.
Since springing out of the university in 2017 Hinetics has brought in eight SBIR grants. According to their website they have developed one product: an electric propulsor specifically designed for the NASA STARC-ABL turbo-electric 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, those 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. In May, 2021 the Air Force awarded the firm a Phase I STTR grant for $149,890 to develop modeling tools and a control scheme for boosting eVTOL power-train performance. This spring the startup picked up $5.7M from the U.S. Dept. of Energy for clean energy technology.
Links:
On bizblip:
Electric motor startup lands $5.7M
Hinetics lands $149K Air Force grant
