Tecnam P2010 H3PS Hybrid Completes First Flight

Tecnam Aircraft announced on Tuesday that it has successfully flown its P2010 H3PS hybrid demonstrator aircraft. According to the company, the flight, which took place on Dec. 21, 2021, is the first for a general aviation aircraft with a parallel hybrid configuration. A collaboration between Tecnam, Rotax and Rolls-Royce, the P2010 H3PS is powered by a 104-kW Rotax 915 IS engine coupled with a 30-kW Rolls-Royce electric motor.

“Though H3PS is not intended for market purposes, our successful flight tests demonstrate that [a] hybrid powertrain, with [a] combustion engine coupled with an electric motor, can bear the same useful load of the traditional 180hp combustion engine,” said Tecnam R&D director Fabio Russo.

The H3PS “High Power High Scalability Aircraft Hybrid Powertrain” project was launched in 2018 with the goal of developing a parallel hybrid powertrain suitable for the Tecnam P2010 and “same-category” aircraft that would not affect the payload and overall performance. For H3PS, Tecnam coordinated airframe and system integration, Rotax handled the design and integration of combustion engine and electric motor and Rolls-Royce managed the electric motor and power storage. The project was funded through the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.