MALTA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 19, 2024--
Wright Electric and its partners have been selected to receive a $3.34M award from the FAA FAST program to develop a new class of batteries that will enable zero emission aircraft flights on large 100+ passenger aircraft.
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It is widely agreed that lightweighting batteries is the most difficult technical challenge preventing the adoption of electric aircraft. The objective of the R&D program is to construct highly energy dense batteries which hold roughly three times more energy per pound of weight than the best electric car batteries. These batteries would enable the wide scale adoption of electric aircraft in the 100+ passenger segment.
“When Wright Electric was founded in 2016, the idea of a battery that would allow aircraft to fly regional routes with reserves seemed like a fantasy to most people,” says Jeff Engler, CEO at Wright Electric. “Now, we are one of several companies with a viable path toward a technology that will enable regional aircraft flights entirely on battery power.”
Wright was founded to address the climate and noise impact of the aerospace industry by building electric aircraft. Wright is focusing on the 100+ passenger aircraft market because this segment accounts for greater than 90% of the carbon emissions of the aerospace industry. Wright builds ultra-power-dense electric aircraft engines and ultra-lightweight batteries for these aircraft. Wright works with NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
The batteries Wright is developing use a novel molten Lithium-Sulfur chemistry with the potential for roughly 3x the gravimetric energy capacity of commercial li-ion. In this program Wright will emphasize reducing risks tied to airworthiness and high volume production.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to mature this technology and accelerate the decarbonization of air transportation in New York State,” says Engler. “This award will greatly accelerate our work to advance clean air travel and we couldn’t be more excited to get started.”
The funding for the FAA FAST program was provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.
“As one of the leading advocates in Congress for innovation and the advancement of clean energy technologies, I’m thrilled to see Malta’s own Wright Electric receive this significant infusion of federal funding,” says Congressman Paul D. Tonko. “This grant, one of just 36 awarded nationwide through the FAA FAST program, will deliver $3.34 million to advance Wright’s groundbreaking work on ultra-lightweight batteries for use on commercial passenger flights. When I visited their facility in 2022, I was deeply impressed by their commitment to pioneering zero-emission regional flights, and I’ve been proud in recent years to support their efforts to secure new federal investments. This award represents a critical step forward for Wright Electric and for our Capital Region, as we continue to lead the nation in the fight against climate change. Going forward, I’m eager to keep working alongside local companies to find innovative solutions to combat our climate crisis.”
Rechargeable Thermal Battery - The above image shows an early prototype of the outer housing for Wright’s novel molten Lithium-Sulfur aviation battery (Photo: Business Wire)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The attacks at Polish schools over the past week were “spontaneous acts” driven by the online “glorification of violence,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday.
Three attacks at schools in the Mazovian province in central Poland took place within four days this week, leaving one dead and many wounded, including children.
By Sunday morning, police had detained 117 people across Poland for carrying knives or other dangerous weapons, or for threatening to attack schools or fellow students. Some 64,000 schools were checked.
“We are not dealing with any group organized on a big scale,” Tusk said on Sunday morning, during a crisis meeting with government and security services. “These are very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity.”
“In the past years and months, we have noted — globally and in Poland — a rise in the fascination with violence.”
Tusk said the acts could be associated with “nihilistic violence,” a term used by authorities to describe acts of violence driven by a nihilistic worldview and misanthropy rather than specific political goals.
In the case of Poland, he said “some of the people detained are active in the ultraright environment." He said authorities have observed intensified online searches of Nazi content as well as of “mass killers who have become idols online.”
Tusk said Poland was facing a “civilizational phenomenon” where kids playing video games, even banal ones, or those interested in crime stories, were getting exposed to more and more violence.
“This is essentially a copycat scenario, something of a long trail of attackers going back to at least 2019, if not decades earlier,” Kacper Rekawek, senior researcher at the International Center for Counterterrorism in The Hague, told the AP. He was referring to Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who shot and killed 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.
Rekawek said that one of the suspects in the latest Polish attacks used the same imagery and esthetics as Tarrant, which means the Polish incidents should be “placed within the confines of essentially terrorist behavior.”
Tusk said police checks at schools across Poland would continue into next week in case kids exposed to the stories of the past attacks might “get stupid and unsafe thoughts” to imitate them.
He said Poland had lots of work to do as a society, with parents and teachers having an especially important role to play in communicating with kids about their experiences online and explaining that “fascination and membership in these online practices can lead to very negative consequences.”
On Wednesday, a 19-year-old student at a vocational school in the Mazovian province attacked fellow students, teachers and passersby with a sharp object, wounding nine people. He was arrested nearby. The following day, a 15-year-old killed a school custodian and wounded two other people in a knife attack at his former school in the same province. On Saturday, a 21-year old woman wounded three at a post-secondary school in Warsaw.
Rumors that the attacks were coordinated and that there would be more on “bloody Friday” were shared in parents’ online groups and by mainstream media. It led to 59 schools preemptively suspending classes on Friday across Poland, the majority in Mazovian province.
Those detained on Friday by the police include a 14-year-old boy from Warsaw who was found in possession of a knife with a concealed blade and 11 firecrackers, and a 16-year old who came to school with a butterfly knife in his backpack, police said.
A police officer and a volunteer firefighter look down the street near a cordoned-off area following an attack on the Vocational School Complex No. 4 in Ostroleka, Poland, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski)
