LightCell Power Generation for Autonomous Long-Range Group 2 eVTOL Systems

Power presents a bottleneck in the advancement of autonomous vehicles, particularly small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). The need for dependable, long-endurance power sources continues to grow, while conventional battery technologies struggle to keep pace. Internal combustion engines (ICE), though powerful, are plagued by issues such as noise, unreliability, and frequent maintenance. Mesodyne’s LightCell is a solid-state power generator that leverages thermophotovoltaics. It employs combustion to heat a photonic crystal emitter, generating thermal radiation that powers photovoltaic cells. This innovative approach is designed for spectral compatibility between the emitter and the PV cells, ensuring highly efficient conversion of fuel into electricity with no moving parts. Key features of the LightCell technology include its lightweight nature, offering over 70% reduction in weight compared to traditional batteries. It also offers multi-fuel compatibility, seamlessly converting various fuels, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel/JP-8, without the need for additional reformers or catalysts, thereby simplifying logistics and reducing operational costs in comparison to fuel cells. Furthermore, its reliability is a notable advantage, as the solid-state power conversion process involves no moving parts, leading to minimal maintenance requirements. This feature makes it well-suited for remote operations, even in extreme temperatures. The technology is also scalable and modular, allowing single LightCells to be combined into higher-power modules and disassembled as needed, offering flexibility for various applications. Additionally, the LightCell operates quietly and only produces a low-temperature exhaust, ensuring stealthy operations. In Phase II of this research and development project, the collaboration between Mesodyne and Aurora Flight Sciences focuses on prototyping and demonstrating the application of the LightCell technology to extend the endurance of a small group 2 unmanned aircraft system, in particular the SKIRON-X electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) platform. The proposed work demonstrates the engineering study performed in Phase I in an integrated, functional flight test, and will include size, weight and power optimization of the LightCell for this application. The Phase II work will take advantage of the discoveries and designs developed in Phase I, and will result in an enhanced endurance SKIRON-X platform. Following the successful completion of the Phase II, we aim to perform a Phase III to bring the TRL of the prototype UAS to TRL 9, finalize the design for usability and performance, and deliver the fully tested technology to the Warfighter.