H3X, new investments for the sustainable aviation
IFA Comment: The industry needs to invest in education and training too. New electrical technology demands more competent professionals to ensure this industry upholds aviation safety
H3X has obtained an investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation, to speed up the technological development and the marketing of revolutionary electric motors.
This latest funding brings the total raised by H3X to $9M, an investment that will be used to accelerate technology development and commercialization of H3X’s HPDM family of integrated motor drives and the scale-up of their new headquarters facility in Louisville, Colorado for production.
«At H3X, we are building integrated motor drives from 30kW to 3MW that are unparalleled in performance in terms of specific power (kW/kg) and efficiency. We are thrilled to have support from Lockheed Martin and are excited for the opportunity to work together and collaborate on next-generation defence technology using our motors», the witness by Jason Sylvestre, Co-Founder and CEO of H3X.
The investor has no doubts about his investment. «H3X is working on scaling transformative technologies that we believe have the potential to provide our customer with viable options for electrifying legacy, all-domain systems and components» is in fact what has affirmed Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures.
H3X has made advancements in several different areas that enable them to reach continuous specific powers of >10kW/kg and best-in-class efficiency. These areas include electromagnetics, material science, power electronics, additive manufacturing, motor control, and thermals. H3X has invested heavily in vertical integration and does design, manufacturing, and testing in-house at their headquarters in Louisville, Colorado.
H3X originally developed this technology to enable compelling fully-electric and hybrid-electric aircraft with excellent range and payload capacity while also significantly reducing noise and operational costs. “When you look at the power density and efficiency requirements that are needed for electrifying narrow-body jets, there really isn’t anything out there that is sufficient,” said Jason Sylvestre. “The Megawatt-class systems that you can buy today still use technology from the last century and are far too large, heavy, and inefficient to meet the demanding requirements of electric aviation.” Additionally, H3X has found that there are a number of other markets that can also benefit from their technology including defence, marine, specialized ground vehicles, and power generation.
