First Company to Receive Design & Production Cert for Electric Propulsion

H55 has been awarded its design organization approval (DOA) from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This follows the granting of the company’s production organization approval (POA) by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation in January of this year. With the DOA and POA secured, the company is well-positioned to receive its type certificate for its 100kW electric propulsion system (EPS) targeted for CS23 aircrafts, foreseen for the end of 2023.

This follows the announcement whereby H55 was selected by Pratt and Whitney Canada for a major project in hybrid electric aviation. Obtaining the DOA and the POA will allow H55 to design its electric propulsion system within a defined certification framework, as well as permitting the company to produce this system in series, satisfying aviation regulations and production requirements.

H55 is the only company it says, aiming to certify the motor and batteries together as part of a Type Certificate (TC). H55’s first EPS type certificate has already secured formal acceptance of its certification basis with EASA, and formal validations with other agencies such as US Federal Aviation Administration and Transport Canada Civil Aviation are underway.

H55 is the first and only company to have type certificates for electric propulsion systems as part of its design organization scope. The DO, PO, and the TC need to satisfy stringent requirements for both the electric propulsion unit (EPU) converting electrical energy into power, as well as the energy storage system (ESS), storing and delivering electrical energy to the EPU. H55 successfully demonstrated to the certification authorities that its in-house DO capabilities are applicable to designing, developing, flight testing, and producing electric propulsion systems including key technological components such as batteries, complex mechanical assemblies, software, and airborne electronic hardware.

Additionally, with four airplanes having been developed and flown, H55 has already demonstrated that its systems are safe and reliable. The TC will enable H55 to continue to provide its electric propulsion solutions suitable for a range of existing designs and future aviation concepts. The company’s EPS or its stand-alone ESS battery pack solutions which are modular, lightweight, and efficient are increasingly sought after by airframe manufacturers, airline operators, and component suppliers who are offering new electric models or retrofitting existing aircraft with the replacement of a conventional engine with electric propulsion.