Florida-based Maxwell Aircraft has unveiled the M1 Hybrid, a patent-pending hybrid-drive amphibian designed for cargo and passenger work in places without conventional airports.
The first variant, the M1-HC cargo aircraft, is being designed to carry a 2000 lb (907 kg) payload over 1000 nm, and will have a 1.5 m (5 ft) cargo door for palletised freight.
The aircraft uses a mechanically coupled hybrid drive that pairs electric motors with two Jet A-burning compression-ignition engines. Maxwell is targeting up to 1500 hp for take-off and initial climb, with the electric motors providing a short burst of extra power, and around 300 hp combined from the two 150 hp engines in cruise. Limiting the electric boost to take-off and climb reduces the amount of battery the aircraft needs to carry.
Maxwell CEO David Dillon said the company wanted to rethink what an amphibian could do.
“By combining the tremendous power of electric propulsion where it delivers the greatest benefit with the range and energy density of Jet A for cruise, we saw we could give operators an aircraft that carries more, travels farther, and reaches destinations inaccessible to conventional landplanes,” he said.
The carbon-fibre and Kevlar airframe is based on the composite Gweduck, which Maxwell describes as a fifth-generation evolution of the Grumman amphibian design. Composite construction removes the corrosion problems that metal aircraft face in marine environments.
Maxwell sees the M1 suiting remote communities, island operations, logistics, disaster response, and government and defence work.