The aircraft is to run on batteries and handle flights of under 300 miles. It will feature high aspect-ratio wings for energy efficient flight, distributed electric propulsion and swappable battery packs with advanced cell chemistry.
History
The 10-person Los Angeles based startup was founded in 2016 and has received venture capital from groups such as Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator. The company is named after the Wright brothers. Wright publishes a monthly newsletter on sustainable aviation, the Weport. In September 2017, UK budget carrierEasyJet announced it was developing an electric 180-seater for 2027 with Wright Electric. Wright Electric built a two-seat proof-of-concept with 272kg of batteries, and believes that batteries can be scaled up with substantially lighter new battery chemistries: a 291 nautical mile range would suffice for 20% of Easyjet passengers. Wright Electric plans to develop a 10-seater and eventually an at least 120 passengers single-aisle, short-haul airliner and targets 50% lower noise and 10% lower costs. To evaluate electric propulsion systems, two test stands were constructed: one with two 250 kW UQM motors and two Hartzell Propellers, built with Yates Electrospace, the other on a trailer to be brought to high altitude test sites. In May 2018, Jetex, a Dubai fixed-base operator with 30 bases, invested in the company. By November 2018, Wright was testing a commercially available electric motor, before combining it with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A turboprop to be installed on an existing nine-seater for 2019 flight tests, which may be marketed subsequently. Wright is working with Madrid-based Axter Aerospace, already flying its two-seat AX-40S based on a Tecnam P92 with a Rotaxpiston engine and an electric motor driving the propeller, with four times less power. After a 50-seat model, Darold Cummings, designer of the ESAero ECO-80 turboelectric configuration for NASA, evolved this previous design for the Wright 186-seat airliner with 500 km of range for Easyjet, which could use a more powerful Wright-patented motor. By November 2019, test flights of the nine-seater were to begin in the coming weeks, while EasyJet partnered with Airbus to study a short-haul airliner concurrently. In January 2020, Wright Electric revealed that it was constructing a 1.5 MW electric motor and 3 kV inverter intended to power a 186-seat Wright 1 aircraft with a range of at least that could enter into service from 2030. Ground testing of the motor is planned for 2021 and flight testing for 2023.
