Selected characteristics of the electric propulsion system of aircraft as found out from the ground-based laboratory tests

The paper is a discussion on ground-based laboratory tests of the aircraft’s electric propulsion system. The tests were intended to find relationships between environmental conditions and characteristics of the aircraft electric motor. The object under examination was a brushless DC motor AXI 2820/14 of 360 W power. Presented and discussed is the AFIT-made test bench that enables suitable, pre-planned experiments to be carried out. Discussed are also procedures of taking measurements of electric motor characteristics, followed with discussion of results. Presented selected issues of parametric description of gained results. With measurements as the basis, the relationships, first, between the electric motor’s efficiency and temperature, and second, between both the applied power and the power output (effective power) and the ambient temperature have been found. The most important findings of the testing work are, first, that the pressure does not affect the characteristics of the electric motor’s performance and second, determination of how temperature affects these characteristics. The results gained have formed the basis for the most vital flight parameters of electrically driven aircraft to be found, including the energy consumption essential for the flight range and endurance. All these findings give grounds for standardization calculations that consist in recalculation of characteristics determined in the course of aircraft flight-testing. Because of their representativeness, they also prove good illustrative examples to demonstrate properties of aircraft’s electric propulsion system.