The American company Bell has filed a patent application for the technology of charging electric aircraft in the air. According [...] to Flightglobal, it includes an aircraft with rechargeable batteries, a rod or cable for connecting a chargeable electric aircraft and a system for monitoring the entire process.
Electric aircraft have a limited range. For example, the maximum range of the Velis Electro-the first fully electric aircraft with a type certificate The European Aviation Safety Agency EASA is about a hundred kilometers away. It takes up to two hours to fully charge it.
Not every airfield is suitable for recharging electric aircraft. Some of them are impossible or very difficult to connect to the general power grid at all. In part, this problem can be solved with the help of a mobile charging station (such, for example, is being developed by the American startup Beam Global).
Bell has proposed a different approach — to recharge electric planes, helicopters and drones right in flight. The American company filed a patent application for this technology last year, but the US Patent and Trademark Office published it only on August 5.
For aerial charging, you will need an aircraft with rechargeable batteries, a rod or cable that will allow you to establish communication with the aircraft being charged, and a monitoring system that tracks the connection and disconnection of charging. A flying charging station can be based on both a drone and a manned aircraft, and it does not have to be electric itself. Bell says that the KC-135 tanker can also be adapted for it .
Potentially flying charging stations will be able to recharge not one, but several aircraft. They will be connected to it using a rod or a cable with a charging socket. Bell believes that aerial recharging of electric aircraft will be of interest not only to military, but also to commercial customers.
Although electric flying helicopters are still inferior in range to conventional ones, it is believed that they will be more environmentally friendly and cheaper to operate and maintain. Therefore, many companies are engaged in their development, including the French Aura Aero and the American Bye Aerospace .
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva