Evolution and Development of High Voltage (270 Volt) DC Aircraft Electric Systems in the United States

The increasing demands on aircraft electric systems to provide a low maintenance, highly reliable energy supply in advanced military and commercial aircraft, and the growing need to become less dependent on complex ground support facilities has accelerated the development of new concepts in power generation, control, and utilization. Coupled with this, the present threat of terrorist damage to aircraft in flight has created an unprecedented need for system survivability. Because of the relative simplicity, flexibility, and the unique ability of direct current systems to provide instantaneous redundancy for critical loads, there has been a renewed interest in high voltage DC aircraft systems. This paper presents the system concept, and status of hardware development.