Fully electric aircraft could take to the skies within five years – TE Connectivity
Fully electric aircraft could be taking to the skies within the next five years as work on the technology continues to gather speed.
TE Connectivity (TE) senior manager business development Martin Cullen spoke to our managing editor, Rebecca Farquhar, and said while it remains unclear as to the type of electric aircraft that will ultimately prove the most successful, he is confident that the sector is set to take off properly soon.
He pledged that whatever the shape electric aircraft end up taking, they will be fully supported by TE which designs and manufactures connectors, sensors, relays, contactors and application tooling for several industries including aviation.
Cullen said: “There’s a huge uplift in eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) urban air mobility, which is the start of this journey, but we are also seeing more of eCTOL (electric conventional take-off and landing) aircraft.
“So [when it comes to] electrified conventional aircraft, whether it’s small or 4 or 6 passenger or all the way up to a 14 or 18 passenger size, that journey is just beginning.
“Within five or 10 years we’ll see electric aircraft and whether it is vertical take-off or conventional take-off, we will be there.
“TE will be there delivering all the essential critical components for this new domain we are seeing in society as a whole.”
In doing so, Cullen added the company would be drawing on its aerospace experience that dates back to the 1950s as well as the skills of its 90,000 strong global workforce who manufactures 213 billion products annually and who are well used to designing, building and testing whatever technology customers require to meet their needs.
“We’re one of the biggest companies you might not recognize in mass media, however I guarantee you, you have used one of our components today,” Cullen said.
