In aviation, standardization has always been a guiding principle

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Imagine if every gas station had differently-shaped fuel pump nozzles. It would make refuelling a frustrating and time consuming process. This is essentially what has been happening with electric cars.

Different manufacturers have implemented varying charging connection standards across different countries. Charger connections provided by different manufacturers are often incompatible with other models and regions. 

Aviation cannot afford this level of complexity and must stick to its long-term guiding principle of global standardization wherever possible. The complex evolution of electric vehicle charging standards has endured various stages:

Stage 1

Chademo from Japan. The oldest charging standard, originally pushed by the Nissan LEAF. Chademo was superseded by CCS1 and CCS2 standards.

Stage 2

CCS1 and CCS2. Rapidly becoming the non-Tesla standard in North America (CCS2 in Europe and Australia). This is a combined AC and DC charging standard, adding weight and complexity to vehicles. They are large connectors that require onboard AC-DC charger modules. This system would be too heavy for light aircraft, where every pound of on-board weight is carefully scrutinized.

Stage 3

Tesla in North America uses a different standard that’s simple and compact, but proprietary and limited in voltage capability. Earlier, Tesla also designed their own reconfigurable Mennekes Type 2 connector that repurposes the four 3-phase pins as two pairs of DC connections through a series of onboard electrical contactor switches to facilitate DC Fast Charging internationally. The problem with this technique is that it still confuses with conventional AC only Mennekes Type 2 and CCS2 connectors that physically fit but aren't compatible. Now, since the release of the Model 3, Tesla employs CCS2 in Europe and Australia, and then GB/T in China. Wouldn't this have been solved by a single charging standard?

Stage 4

GB/T is the newest DC fast charging standard for electric cars. Despite being only a few years old it has already surpassed the uptake of all other charging standards. Hundreds of thousands of stations employ this standard. Being later to the game, GB/T applied all the lessons learned from past standards. GB/T combined all the best features, without being too bulky or having any unnecessary parts. This is particularly relevant to aviation. It doesn't add to volume or weight. It does not create confusion with AC pins, yet it also includes connection confirmation pins, robust differential pair CAN Bus communication protocol, and low voltage auxiliary power pins. For aviation, these can be set to 28V.

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Aviation

Aviation can apply all the lessons learned from EV charging standards, capitalizing on the progress made by the GB/T standard.

At the start of 2018, we at Electro.Aero were the first to obtain approval from an aviation regulator to commercially operate an electric Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) for recreational flight training. Since then, we identified the need for standardized aviation charging to help accelerate the uptake of electric aircraft.

Electro.Aero CTO Josh Portlock helped establish and run the SAE International committee for developing electric aircraft charging standards in mid-2018, which was named the AE-7D committee. In collaboration with industry, the Electro.Aero team has been developing the draft AS6968 standard for charging of electric aircraft. The standard has already been adopted by the majority of major electric aircraft developers and manufacturers around the world. 

In 2020, we built and flew Australia's first electric microlight. This aircraft was developed in partnership with Airborne Australia as a technology demonstrator to showcase a range of technologies developed by Electro.Aero. It employed the new AS6968 charging standard and was charged by our 30kW RAPID Charger. The aircraft batteries were charged in less than one hour.

This is why standards are so important in aviation. This is why we are developing the leading aircraft charging systems.

Simplicity, safety, and standardization.