Leading the charge: How top-tier supplier BAE Systems is helping to electrify aviation
BAE Systems is advancing aircraft electrification, thanks to 30 years of proven industry experience.
Disclaimer: This is an advertorial for BAE Systems.
From the start BAE Systems believed that aircraft electrification would happen in different ways, and at different levels.
Electrification is increasingly shaping the future of aviation, but the industry’s progress will be determined less by ambition than by the ability to integrate new energy technologies into safe, certifiable, and operational aircraft systems. Across commercial, regional and advanced air mobility (AAM) platforms, electrification has moved beyond conceptual studies and into publicly visible demonstrations that are now testing real-world integration and certification boundaries.
That’s why the company has been forming partnerships with companies across the spectrum of electrified aviation to develop and support a range of technologies – from all-electric small, short-haul aircraft and hybrid-electric regionals to drones and eVTOLs. The company collaborates with both small electric aviation startups and aerospace giants on components ranging from battery packs to energy management controls.
Industry hopefuls and stalwarts look to BAE Systems because it has been designing, building and supporting electric drivetrains, converters and battery management systems for decades. BAE Systems has powered electric ground vehicles for more than 25 years and developed flight-control systems for both military and commercial aircraft for more than 60 years. The company was the first to design and manufacture lithium-ion-based energy storage systems for the heavy-duty transit market and has installed nearly 10,000 systems worldwide.
“Collaborations are very important for our electrification strategy, allowing us to combine expertise, capital and market access that no single organisation can achieve alone,” said Don Ames, senior director of Business Development and Strategy at BAE Systems.
There is no question of whether aircraft electrification will happen, what is in question is how safely and soon it can be certified at scale, said Ames.
By collaborating with technology innovators, utilities, research institutions and supply chain allies, BAE Systems can accelerate product development, de‑risk large‑scale deployments and tap into shared data and best‑practices that drive faster, more cost‑effective roll‑outs with the clear focus on safety and certification.
“It isn’t a question of whether electrification in aviation will happen. It’s a question how safely and how soon it can be certified at scale,” says Ames. “As electrical power levels increase to 800VDC and into hundreds of kilowatts and megawatt power levels, challenges such as fault containment, thermal management, electromagnetic compatibility, and redundancy become central design drivers.”
Based on experience, BAE Systems promotes reusing proven components — either unchanged or adapted — to avoid “first‑of‑a‑kind” designs that can slow aerospace projects.
The company also designs with modularity in mind. This means BAE Systems’ power‑electronics blocks designed for airborne applications can be “stacked” or “scaled” to meet the power levels required for different aircraft classes.
“This modularity shortens the design‑to‑prototype timeline from years to months,” says Ames. “By leveraging an existing, and proven, high power, high voltage components along with qualifying additional suppliers for high‑power semiconductors, high‑energy‑density cells and lightweight motor housings, BAE Systems can secure aerospace‑grade parts faster with a clear path to certification.”
BAE Systems safeguards aviation‑grade batteries through a rigorous, multi‑layered approach that exceeds the standards applied to ground‑based systems, explains Ames.
First, it employs aerospace‑compatible cell chemistries and designs that tolerate extreme temperature swings, vibration and pressure changes. Each battery undergoes extensive testing—including thermal runaway, over‑charge, short‑circuit and shock assessments—under simulated flight conditions to certify reliability. Redundant monitoring and fault‑detection electronics continuously track voltage, temperature, and current, enabling real‑time protective actions.
“Additionally, BAE Systems integrates robust mechanical enclosures, fire‑resistant materials and fail‑safe wiring architectures to prevent, when possible, and contain any failure,” says Ames. “This combination of stringent qualification, continuous health monitoring, and hardened physical design ensures that aviation batteries and power management components meet the higher safety, and reliability demands of flight compared with conventional ground‑based power solutions.”
In 2021, BAE Systems opened its upgraded and expanded aircraft electrification lab at its facility in Endicott, New York. Ames describes it as a “holistic ecosystem” that brings high‑voltage testing, advanced materials analysis, rapid prototyping, safety certification and grid‑integration capabilities under one roof.
It is important to note that the company’s Endicott facility doesn’t stop at ‘development complete’. It continues to act as a living, data‑rich bridge that translates laboratory breakthroughs into manufacturable and certifiable high‑voltage energy‑storage systems.
The company recently announced a further $65 million upgrade and expansion in Endicott. When complete, the new factory will take the commercial products developed elsewhere at the facility and produce them at scale, says Ames. “The advantage of having integrated development, test, qualification, production and repair capabilities is full life cycle expertise and collaboration that promotes innovation, progressive upgrades and delivers tangible value for our customers,” he adds.
Much of the public conversation around electrification focuses on individual elements—batteries, motors, or power density. In practice, aircraft electrification is a tightly coupled systems challenge that spans power generation, conversion, distribution, control, protection, and thermal management. This exactly models the integrated approach BAE Systems has been applying for decades.
Don further states: “This is not just a battery problem. It’s a systems problem—where all electrification components must work together with other aircraft systems in a certifiable way.” These approaches allow aircraft manufacturers to incrementally introduce electrification while balancing risk, certification timelines, and economic realities.
The toughest challenges — ensuring safety, efficiency and cost effectiveness — form the most exciting parts of aircraft electrification, according to Ames.
“Preventing thermal runaway is a perfect example that BAE Systems has worked on to make sure that the energy storage systems are safe and can endure high temperatures and harsh conditions without causing reliability and durability challenges,” he says. “Performance at altitude is another example where BAE Systems continues to make progress so that the electrical components can perform to their best even at 30,000 feet and up.”
Electrification in aviation will be shaped by those who can innovate while meeting the realities of certification, safety, and scale. By working side-by-side with aircraft OEMs on hybrid-electric, more-electric, and advanced air mobility programs, BAE Systems is helping to pioneer the architectures, standards, and integration approaches that will carry electrification from demonstration into service. That collaborative, system-level innovation, while leveraging decades of experience, is what will ultimately determine how—and how fast—the more-electric aircraft becomes reality.
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