Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU) informed it had made a breadboard model of a modified starter-generator for commercial aircraft. The existing aeronautical engineering technologies require having two separate devices: one - starter - for running the engine and the other - electric generator - for powering airborne equipment while in flight. Joining these two into one unit will result in aeroplanes being smaller in size and lower in weight, reports NSTU's Press Office.
"We are analysing electromagnetic processes to use the generator as a starter when the plane is on the ground or in the air during an emergency engine shutdown. This way, we may abandon the launch system currently in use, as it has become technologically obsolete and serves only one purpose. The generator will also have a converter, using which we can power up a battery," says Maxim Zharkov, a senior structural engineer at NSTU's Institute of Power Electronics.
The energy converter will be controlled by computer algorithms based on mathematical descriptions of the physical processes inside the generator. The inventors note that their development can be installed in, for instance, Russian-made MC-21 and Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliners.
Let us remind you that Kuzbass State Technical University has developed and successfully tested an innovative method of producing carbon fibres using environmentally friendly deep coal processing. The new solution may find use in the aviation and space industries.
