Design of a Magnetic Gear for NASA's Vertical Lift Quadrotor Concept Vehicle

Magnetic gears are an attractive alternative to mechanical gears for electrified aircraft drive systems due to their ability to transmit torque without mechanical tooth contact. Consequently, magnetic gears enable electrified aircraft to take advantage of the benefits of gearing without introducing most of the contact-related reliability concerns associated with mechanical gearing. Magnetic gears however, have not been shown to match the specific torque (torque per unit mass) and efficiency of their mechanical counterparts in an aerospace application to date. In this paper, the design of a concentric magnetic gear for a NASA personal-air-transport reference vehicle is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of a magnetic gear for aerospace applications.