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A novel brushless ac permanent-magnet motor is described. This is intended for use as a highly efficient machine for a propeller-driven stratospheric aircraft. The machine is lightweight because of the use of plastics for the structural elements. A form of modeling is described in which the parameters for a decoupled equivalent circuit are calculated by three-dimensional finite-element analysis of a module of the machine. Matlab is then used to simulate the equivalent circuit action. It is shown that the fundamental component of the current waveforms agrees closely with a simple analysis approach.

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A dedicated brushless PM motor prototype for a stratospheric aircraft propeller drive has been manufactured and experimentally tested. The motor has a non-conventional axial flux multi-disc structure; the magnetic circuit is almost ironless and the mechanical structure makes wide use of composite plastic materials. The experimental tests demonstrate the motor functionality and performances, basically confirming the expected motor characteristics. The prototype performances are assessed considering as reference the conventional radial flux motors.

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