Batteries News

Wright Awarded Contract from US Air Force for High Power Lightweight Batteries

batteries contract awarded

Wright Awarded Contract from US Air Force for High Power Lightweight Batteries.

Wright Electric, a world leader in electric aircraft, today announced they have been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop high power output rechargeable batteries.

Wright Electric was founded in 2016 to build electric airplanes with the goal of reducing the climate impact of the aerospace industry. The Company is developing ultra-lightweight motors and batteries for these aircraft, working alongside NASA, Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), and the U.S. Department of Defense. For example, earlier this year Wright was awarded a contract under the ARPA-E PROPEL-1K program to develop lightweight batteries for transportation applications.

Concurrently, Wright Electric has been identifying industrial and defense-related applications for these motors and batteries. Today’s announcement is for Wright’s U.S. Air Force AFWERX SBIR 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.

Aaron Rowe, PhD, Engineering Manager, Batteries, Wright Electric, said:

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.”

Single-use batteries that operate at high temperature, often called thermal batteries, are used in a wide range of military equipment. Wright Electric will leverage additive manufacturing to quickly produce small volumes of rechargeable batteries that can stand in for legacy thermal batteries, ensuring a resilient supply chain of critical defense components.

“Instead of advancing a completely new battery chemistry, our aim is to develop a process that will let us do limited production runs of exotic batteries at a reasonable cost.”

We will construct a production line that can very rapidly adapt to the needs of our customers.

Required Statement: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

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Wright Awarded Contract from US Air Force for High Power Lightweight Batteries.

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