Urban Air Mobility at full power

Urban Air Mobility at full power

Our Electrical teams closed out 2023 with further success on the pathway to enabling Advanced Air Mobility with the first active test of our unique motor demonstrator for Urban Air Mobility.

Motor demonstrator for 150 kW electric propulsion unit
Our motor demonstrator on the test bench

A global effort

The 150-kilowatt electric motor was tested at our specially modified test facilities in Munich, Germany, bringing together efforts from across our Electrical global teams to lead Advanced Air Mobility.


Its development is partly funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and will play an important role in enabling more sustainable flight around the world.

Rolls-Royce motor demonstrator for UAM passed to test

Flawless results in operation

The direct drive, air-cooled electric motor design utilises several novel technology bricks to reduce overall system complexity, cost and weight, with transversal flux topology delivering the highest possible torque density.

Through our active tests, the team was able to demonstrate active operation with full torque, confirming and validating our design assumptions.

“I am so pleased to see that we could achieve the torque values and the speed values that we expected,” said Markus Christmann, Chief Engineer of Urban Air Mobility at Rolls-Royce Electrical. “The updated test infrastructure and the air-cooled transversal flux motor worked together flawlessly.”

Electric propulsion unit design for Urban Air Mobility

Powering the next generation of UAM

Our Electrical teams are already working on future iterations of the motors using data and insights from these recent tests. These will provide valuable learnings that will be incorporated into our next-generation designs and eventually help to deliver certifiable products to power commercial electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.

Motor demonstrator for 150 kW electric propulsion unit
Members of the international UAM motor team (team not depicted fully)

Dr Martin Boll, Programme-Manager Urban Air Mobility at Rolls-Royce Electrical commented: “What an amazing present before Christmas. Just weeks after initiating the testing phase, we've achieved a crucial milestone in our electric machine development by demonstrating active operation with full torque of our 150-kilowatt transversal flux machine. Our international team has been diligently working to achieve this target and move on to push boundaries in the aerospace industry.”

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