Jul 28 2010
On May 26, 2010, on its first flight attempt, the Boeing X-51A WaveRider successfully completed the longest supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight in history travelling at a top speed of Mach 5 for nearly three and a half minutes.
For this demonstration, Quallion developed an advanced lithium-ion system to power various components within the unmanned vehicle. The program chose to use a rechargeable lithium-ion chemistry over the traditional silver-zinc and thermal battery solutions to reduce ground maintenance prior to launch, which would allow for testing of the system without the need to replace the battery. Quallion developed a high energy density and high discharge rate pouch cell, which served as the basis for three separate battery packs enclosed in one envelope on the vehicle. This cell design had to be robust enough to handle three different performance requirements while maintaining the program's weight goals.
The lithium-ion cell was designed for high discharge power capabilities with high safety characteristics. "Being able to design the proper lithium-ion cell to meet the unique envelope, weight and performance requirements of the X-51A program was key to meeting the mission requirements and providing the X-51A power," says CEO & CTO Dr. Hisashi Tsukamoto.
In addition, due to the unique environmental conditions of traveling in a vehicle capable of greater than Mach 5 speed, Quallion utilized its innovative battery packaging designs to reduce the overall loads and stress on the lithium-ion cells. "Quallion leveraged our experience of designing unique batteries for military and aerospace applications in order to enable the successful qualification of this battery design and performance in flight," says the VP of Military/Aerospace Power, Vincent Visco.
Source: http://www.quallion.com/