Development of a Superconducting Cable for Aircraft Electric Propulsion System

Superconducting coated conductors made of REBCO—REBa
₂
Cu
₃
O
_7–
δ
, where RE is a rare earth element (Y, Gd, Sm, Nd, Eu, etc.), potentially improve the performances of motors, generators, transformers, and cables of superconducting electric propulsion aircraft. Such aircraft require extremely lightweight superconducting cables capable of achieving the specified current-transporting characteristics. In our previous works, we developed triaxial superconducting cables, but they were heavy for the superconducting electric propulsion aircraft system. In particular, the corrugated tube in the developed cable accounted for a large proportion of the cable weight, and its diameter reduction was necessary. Therefore, we selected a stacked superconducting cable structure. We compared the ac loss measurements between the new stacked and previous triaxial structures. Considering the difficulty of reducing triaxial cable weight in superconducting cables for aircraft, the stack cable is a reasonable choice.