Wright Electric Wins US Air Force Contract To Develop Lightweight High-Output Batteries – CleanTechnica

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Wright Electric, a US startup that has been making strides in electric aviation, including its development of ultra-lightweight batteries, motors, and generators, has announced another vote of confidence, financially speaking, in the form of a new contract with the US Air Force for the development of lightweight and high output rechargeable batteries.

Last week, the company announced that it had been awarded an AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 contract, “which is designed to explore the possibility of using Wright’s rechargeable thermal batteries in multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) where high power output is crucial.”

“We’ve heard from many aerospace and defense customers that they want compact batteries with extremely high power output. Thanks to support from the Air Force, we can take our first steps with a new program to deliver batteries that are extremely compact and capable of ultra high discharge rates.” — Aaron Rowe, PhD, Engineering Manager, Batteries, Wright Electric

According to Wright Electric, instead of pursuing new battery chemistries, the company is looking to “leverage additive manufacturing to quickly produce small volumes of rechargeable batteries that can stand in for legacy thermal batteries.” This tactic will allow Wright to produce “limited production runs of exotic batteries at a reasonable cost,” and should also help to ensure “a resilient supply chain of critical defense components.”

This latest contract could also help speed up the FAA approval process for its technologies, as Wright CEO Jeff Engler told Aviation International News that “exploring options for its battery technology beyond the civil air transport sector could improve prospects for getting it to market sooner than the FAA approval process would allow.”