Electric Motor Powered Aero-engine Simulator (EMPAS)

The potential use of electric motors to power engine simulators on wind tunnel models of commercial aircraft has been studied for some years at the QinetiQ 5m Wind Tunnel at Farnborough. Recently, motors with the required power density have become available, and design and production of a prototype engine simulator is currently being undertaken. The background, potential advantages of the system, design considerations and a progress report on the project is given within this paper.