📋 Tender Overview
In a control room nearby, about a dozen people - some of whom had worked on the system for years - gathered and watched. With the click of a mouse, the power began flowing to their creation.
That creation was an early version of the RTX Hybrid-Electric Flight Demonstrators experimental propulsion system for a regional aircraft. It will pair a thermal engine with an electric motor - and, the team hopes, tap into a new era of fuel efficiency for aviation.
The project is supported by the Canadian federal government and provincial government of Quebec along with a range of partners across industry and academia. It also reflects RTXs company-wide approach to innovation; it combines an advanced thermal engine from Pratt & Whitney Canada, a 1-megawatt electric motor from Collins Aerospace, and a 200-kilowatt-hour battery system from the startup H55, backed in part by RTX Ventures, the companys venture capital arm.
The goal of the project is to show a 30% improvement in fuel efficiency compared to todays most advanced regional turboprops. The team also hopes the project will show whats possible in designing future aircraft.
Pratt & Whitney is the quintessential thermal engine maker, and Collins Aerospace is the quintessential aircraft system supplier on the planet, said David Venditti, Pratt & Whitneys program manager for the demonstrator. Theres no other place really in the world where we have all of those experts and resources coming to bear and developing a technology like this.
