Kite Magnetics reveals ‘world’s most powerful’ electric motor for aircraft

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The Kite Magnetics team led by Dr Richard Parsons. (credit: Kite Magnetics)

Kite Magnetics has revealed its 120 kW air-cooled electric motor, which it said is “the world’s most powerful for planes”, at the Avalon Air Show.

The electric motor is made from a material called Aeroperm, which is a nanocrystalline magnetic soft material composed of nan-scale crystals within an amorphous metal matrix. According to Kite, the motor is more powerful than a small car engine but only weighs as much as a full suitcase.

The Melbourne electric aircraft motor OEM, which emerged from Monash University, raised $1.85m in a seed round in October last year. Investment was led by Investible through its new climate tech fun and supported by Breakthrough Victoria, Galileo and Possible Ventures.

Founder and CEO Dr Richard Parsons said: “We are excited to launch not only the world’s most powerful air-cooled electric motor for electric aircraft but also the first commercially available electric motor that uses this new type of magnetic material.”

(credit: Kite Magnetics)

Parsons said his team of engineers has developed an electric motor for a “new generation of all-electric aircraft to stay in the air for longer”. It will also cut carbon emissions in the “notoriously” carbon heavy sector, he added.

“With our Aeroperm magnetic materials technology, we can reduce the energy wasted in parts of  an electric motor by more than 10 times. This means we can use air cooling even at very high power levels. This makes our motors simpler, more reliable and extremely lightweight,” said Parsons.

Kite is accepting orders and expects to begin shipping to existing customers within the coming year. 

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