Safran's ENGINeUS 100 Electric Motor Earns EASA Certification

February 7, 2025

Safran Electrical & Power's ENGINeUS 100 has received EASA certification. (Image: Safran Electrical & Power)

Safran Electrical & Power is celebrating a world first: certification awarded by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) of the ENGINeUS 100 motor – the first electric motor certified to power new air mobility.

The motor obtained certification after a campaign involving 1,500 hours of motor certification tests and more than 100 flight hours on an aircraft in real-world conditions. It is the result of four years of collaboration with EASA to define the specific airworthiness rules for electric propulsion and design the right methods to properly assess and certify it.

The ENGINeUS 100 electric motor is a whole host of innovations. Its design includes power and control electronics directly integrated into the motor. It can be easily integrated into all propulsion architectures, thanks to its compactness, lightness and its air cooling system. It delivers maximum power of 125 kW, with an unrivalled weight-to-power ratio of 5 kW/kg.

Safran Electrical & Power is preparing to mass-produce the ENGINeUS range with the creation of four semi-automated production lines in 2026 in Niort (France) and Pitstone (UK), enabling production of more than 1,000 electric motors per year, with capacity to increase production.

The ENGINeUS electric motor is designed to meet the varying requirements of the new mobility market thanks to its inherent ability to integrate into multiple architectures: from 100 percent electric propulsion for small two to four passengers aircraft, to distributed hybrid-electric propulsion for 19-passenger small regional transport aircraft, right up to the electric hybridization of future generations of commercial aircraft engines, capable of carrying 150 passengers.

Many aircraft manufacturers operating in new air mobility have already opted for Safran's ENGINeUS motor range or GENeUS motor-generators: AURA AERO, Bye Aerospace, CAE, Diamond Aircraft, Electra, TCab Tech, and VoltAero. The certification of the ENGINeUS 100 is a major milestone towards the production and market launch of the first aircraft.

“We have just witnessed a key moment in the history of aviation. By obtaining certification for the ENGINeUS 100 electric motor, Safran Electrical & Power has achieved a world first. For Safran Electrical & Power and its institutional partners, this event represents an immense source of pride”, said Bruno Bellanger, CEO of Safran Electrical & Power.

For EASA, the certification process in this case brought learnings that can be applied to further propulsion projects in the future.

“This was a fascinating project for EASA, and the first test of our Special Condition designed for the certification of hybrid and all-electric propulsion,” said Rachel Daeschler, EASA Certification Director. “EASA is fully committed to supporting the development and certification of propulsion technologies aimed at decarbonizing aviation. We congratulate Safran for this key achievement, which is paving the way for the electrification of aviation, for small airplanes and beyond.”

Back in 2017, EASA initiated discussions on regulation evaluation for a wide spectrum of innovative propulsion systems. A number of requests for the type certification of novel designs were coming to EASA, mostly for General Aviation and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The manufacturers variously had the ambition to enable Urban Air Mobility (UAM) or create new solutions for Regional Air Mobility (RAM). Electric or hybrid engines, as well as the diversity of new propulsion system architectures proposed, were not foreseen when the specifications for the conventional thermal engines were originally developed decades ago. A new electric engine could not therefore be certified directly against these specifications.

To fill this gap, EASA developed what is known as a Special Condition (SC). The objective was to allow clearly needed innovation for sustainability, while ensuring the same safety record as today’s thermal engines. The aim was to support innovative propulsion certification with a unique performance-based requirement applicable to both aircraft and engine certification applications, so as to guarantee consistency from the outset.

SC E-19 for the certification of hybrid and/or electric propulsion was published in April 2021. It was then implemented as the certification standard for VTOL applications and to the first propulsion type certificate application from a new company associated with a larger well-known group, Safran Electrical & Power.

This first engine application marked the start of an enriching common journey for EASA as a regulator and the manufacturer: it enabled EASA to shape the future of propulsion certification and create further detailed guidance to accompany manufacturers on the path to achieving more sustainable aviation at a larger scale.

Certifying ENGINeUS 100 according to SC E-19

Close cooperation with the regulator was required to define appropriate analysis and tests that proved the design is compliant.

In this case, the engine design had several novelties that entailed developing new means of compliance. As examples of the extent of its novelty, the ENGINeUS engine uses new power modules and integrates the power electronics directly into an air-cooled engine.

Safran Electrical & Power proved to be very agile and creative in designing tests that were able to demonstrate the safety of an electric engine, where the safety challenges faced are very different.

“As one example, the minimization of fire risk had to be rethought in its entirety,” said Régis Rossotto, Project Manager from the EASA side. “In contrast to combustion engine for which the risk of fire arises from the ignition of flammable fluids, in an electric engine, that risk comes from the use of high voltage and electrical arcing. A worst-case scenario was defined and tested, and mitigations were put in place to allow a pilot to land safely if such a scenario arose.”

Such topics required very close collaboration not only with the EASA flight test and powerplant experts but also with Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH, the airframe manufacturer that is the initial customer for the ENGINeUS.

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