Motorcar Parts of America Inc. has announced its wholly owned subsidiary D&V Electronics USA has received an order from NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) for high-power direct current emulators to be utilized for development of hybrid electric aircraft testing applications. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
NASA GRC researchers are developing new applications for the use of electric motors in future aircraft propulsion systems. The DC emulators will be utilized in conjunction with other equipment to emulate the electric motor and power generation sub-systems of an aircraft to determine key specifications for electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) systems.
“The utilization of our innovative and leading emulator systems by NASA is particularly exciting, and it highlights the opportunities we envision as electrification gains continued momentum,” said Selwyn Joffe, chairman, president and CEO.
“Our emulators provide a scalable test platform for NASA and enable flexibility to modify and test performance characteristics on the fly. This flexibility provides significant time- and cost -savings by eliminating the need to purchase multiple physical motors and associated test equipment required to support a myriad of potential configurations,” said David Eddy, general manager of D&V Electronics USA.
Electronic propulsion opens the VTOL aircraft design space by harnessing concepts such as distributed electronic propulsion (DEP), as well as facilitating new approaches to wing-borne VTOL. “D&V Electronics’ DC emulators offer significant benefits to research in this area and we look forward to a fruitful relationship with NASA GRC,” Eddy added.
