“The Grid” Promises to Be the Most Advanced Electric Propulsion Laboratory in the Aerospace Industry

Collins Aerospace’s new high-voltage facility will be dedicated to developing electric power for all aviation sectors.

April 8, 2019

William Kucinski

Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (UTC), has laid out its plans for what is calling “The Grid” – an 25,000-square-foot advanced electric power systems laboratory for designing and testing next-generation, more-electric aircraft technologies for commercial, military, and business aviation. The high-voltage lab, already underway in Rockford, Illinois, will also develop technologies for electric urban air mobility (UAM) platforms and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or “drones.”

According to Collins Aerospace, the $50 million facility will be the aerospace industry’s “most advanced electric power systems lab,” and represents part of a larger planned $150 million total investment in electric systems over the next 3 years.

William Kucinski is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

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