Kite Magnetics launches light and powerful electric aircraft motor

Monash University spinout Kite Magnetics has officially launched what is claims is the world’s most powerful air-cooled electric motor for aircraft, the KM-120.

According to the company: “Our lightweight electric motor is more powerful than a typical small car but only weighs as much as a full suitcase thanks to the use of our unique new magnetic material called Aeroperm.”

The new nanocrystalline core material cuts the energy wasted in parts of an electric motor, allowing the motor to use air cooling even when running at high power levels.

The development of Aeroperm began at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Monash University in Melbourne where the new material was co-invented by Professor Kiyonori Suzuki, Dr. Richard Parsons and Dr. Ziyu Li.

In 2022 Kite Magnetics officially spun out from Monash University and started developing new class of electric motors for aircraft.

The company raised $1.85 million in a seed round in October with funds coming from Investible, Breakthrough Victoria, Galileo and Possible Ventures.

According to the company: “The global aviation industry contributes about 3 times more to climate change than all of Australia’s emissions combined.

“It is predicted that by 2030 almost half of all flights could be on electric aircraft, with roughly 45 percent of global flights being under 800 km.

“Currently, the biggest limitation of the adoption of electric aircraft is that they do not have enough range compared to conventional planes.”

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