OXIS Energy to Develop Lightweight Battery Cell for Bye Aerospace eFlyer

Bye Aerospace is developing an all-electric FAR 23-certified general aviation trainer aircraft, and plans to source lithium sulfur cell batteries from OXIS Energy to satisfy the eFlyer’s powerplant requirements.

Check out a video of the eFlyer prototype’s first flight here. Photo // Bye Aerospace

George Bye, CEO of Bye Aerospace, said “New Li-S battery cells from OXIS have the potential to greatly enhance the quality, cost and performance of eFlyer 4 and our other future aircraft projects.” OXIS Energy Ltd is involved in the design, development and now the move towards commercial production of lithium sulfur cells for battery systems.  OXIS manufactures and produces all aspects and components in the making of the Li-S cell.  

The OXIS Energy Lithium-Sulfur battery cell technology offers significant benefits to aviation and as a result, it is collaborating with Bye Aerospace of Denver, Colorado to produce a common Li-S advanced battery cell for the high voltage battery pack system to be considered for Bye’s future electric aircraft.  These cells will achieve the higher energy density required for such aircraft. The project will commence in September 2019.

Huw Hampson-Jones, CEO of OXIS Energy, said, “Aviation is one of OXIS’ target markets, and in the first instance, Regional Rapid Air Taxi Transportation. A key measure of OXIS’ suitability is to be able to consistently produce cells in excess of 400 Wh/kg, which are already undergoing evaluation. OXIS expects to achieve 500 Wh/kg by early 2020. Our Li-S cells and battery systems are ideally suited for aviation. They are over 50% lighter than the current Li-ion cell and battery systems, with the winning formula of a high energy cell at the power required. The use of the same cell format across batteries will also help our customers to minimise cost and improve serviceability.”

In ground tests in Europe, OXIS has already shown that Li-S has demonstrated a significant improvement in simulated flight duration compared with Lithium NMC; it will now undertake a further series of tests which will provide a robust indication of the OXIS Li-S performance.

Why it’s important: Over the next 18 months, OXIS aims to move towards the production of commercial cells and battery systems; Bye Aerospace already has 60 orders for their eFlyer aircraft from OSM Aviation Academy, upon which they are looking to expand. The new battery technolgy from OXIS has the potential to not only support Bye’s current orders, but also be integrated in to various other electric aircraft being developed by OEMs around the globe.

Source // Bye Aerospace

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