High Efficiency Powertrain for Hybrid Aircraft (HEPHA)

Ampaire proposes to fabricate, integrate, and test a novel hybrid electric powertrain on Ampaire's electrified propulsion flying testbed. The AMP Drive model AMP-H270 consists of a modern JetA/SAF engine plus electric machine in a hybrid electric configuration to enable flexible implementation in a number of aircraft applications. The JetA/SAF engine is a high efficiency compression ignition (CI) engine from subcontractor DeltaHawk (Racine, WI) that will be coupled to Ampaire’s custom electric boost and regeneration system to provide several key features: enabling multi-mode hybrid electric operation, and significant reduction in fuel use. The AMP Drive hybrid unit will replace a conventional IO-550 avgas engine to power the tail propeller in Ampaire's hybrid Skymaster 337, and retain the all electric nose propeller drive. The aircraft will be converted to be supplied by JetA and SAF and retain Ampaire's high voltage lithium battery. Ground and flight testing will verify the performance and utility of the hybrid powertrain technology for a range of potential future applications with NASA, DoD, and commercially.