Wright Electric has announced the Wright Spirit a 100 sweater electric aircraft that now joins its flagship electric aircraft the 1. It has four-megawatt class motors and the design is based on its BA4 146 platform. “The Wright Spirit aircraft design builds on the BAe 146 platform – a 100 passenger, 4-engine aircraft known for its operation out of noise-sensitive airports,” the company said in a statement.
“To develop the integrated propulsion system, Wright has assembled an innovative team of companies with expertise in generation, energy storage and propulsion design. The program now proceeds with on-going ground testing and final selection of the propulsion system. In 2023, the aircraft will begin flight testing with one all-electric propulsor. The development program will then accelerate towards flight testing with two all-electric propulsors by 2024 leading to the full-electric aircraft by 2026,” it added.
The tests for the prototype will interestingly happen just on one motor but will be coupled with three conventional engines. Then gradually in 2024 Wright will start using two electric motors and then it will go fully electric in 2026.
In comparison, the Wright 1 has a 186 person capacity and it has 10 electric motors with a total peak output of 20 megawatts but that electric plane will launch only in 2030.
Wright Electric has explained its development of 2-megawatt motors which scale from 500 kilowatts to 4 megawatts with inverters with ultra-high efficiency and power density.
“The path was set in early 2020 with Wright’s announcement and development of their megawatt propulsion system for an all-electric commercial aircraft. Throughout the last two years, the company has been proving key components of the system including a high-efficiency, high-power-density inverter and a 2 MW (2,700 HP) motor. The existing hydrocarbon-based propulsion system will be replaced with Wright’s all-electric, emissions-free propulsion system,” explained the company
Interestingly while it uses electric propulsion, there is no word on the presence of batteries, leave alone the capacity of the battery pack or the weight of the aircraft.