C h a p t e r 5
Weight concerns are important to any
air vehicle, but with critical energy and
space restrictions, reducing the load
on electrical motors via reduced weight
in UAM systems is even more of a
concern. With a large number of signal
and power wires snaking throughout
the aircraft, if both individual cable
weight and the number of cables can
be reduced, aircraft performance can
be improved proportionally. At the same
time, cable reduction can make aircraft
less complicated, thus less expensive
in terms of capital costs and continuing
maintenance.
Minimizing UAM cable complexity and
weight can be considered from several
different angles. The most obvious
weight reduction target is the motor
power cabling. However, if a UAM
vehicle requires 250A, or even more
current, that largely sets the diameter
of copper required for a design. This
can, however, be addressed indirectly
by using components that work with
higher voltages and less current (with
proper electrical isolation as discussed
in Chapter 4), ultimately requiring less
copper cross-sectional area for power
transmission. This, of course, requires
careful system design and increased
MANAGING UAM COMPLEXITY
AND WEIGHT
Huge improvements can be
made with modern high-speed
communication links like Single
Pair Ethernet to reduce wire
count and weight. The great
news for system designers is
that most of these improvements
can be addressed with modern
semiconductor offerings."
Bart Basile
Systems Engineer - Aerospace, Texas Instruments
21
Addressing New Challenges in Urban Air Mobility
