NASA has awarded a pair of contracts worth $253.4 million combined to General Electric‘s (NYSE: GE) aviation subsidiary and MagniX USA to develop and demonstrate electrified propulsion systems intended for commercial aircraft.
The two companies will participate in the Electric Powertrain Flight Demonstration project within a five-year period, as part of NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program, the agency said Friday.
“We expect to realize significant improvements in the economic and environmental performance of subsonic transports through incorporation of these novel alternative propulsion and energy technologies into the fleet,” said Robert Pearce, associate administrator of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
The contracts also call for GE Aviation and MagniX to support other agency programs involving electric propulsion development, flight test instrumentation, data analysis and megawatt-class EAP innovation.
