NASA Electric Aircraft Testbed

They will be completed in 2019 and the internal NASA work by 2020,[needs update] then they will be assembled in a megawatt-scale drive system to be tested in the narrowbody-sized NEAT.

[2] The University of Illinois is developing a 1-megawatt permanent magnet synchronous motor spinning at 18,000 rpm to drive a Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks' Electrically Variable Engine turbofan from a battery for taxiing, takeoff and idle descent in a parallel hybrid.

A near-term hybrid would need 1,000–3,000-volt and a fully turboelectric large aircraft 5,000–10,000-volt, like ship power systems but arcing occurs at much lower voltages at low pressures than at sea level.

Silicon carbide [SiC] and gallium nitride [GaN] switches can operate at higher frequencies with lower losses, increasing efficiency.

The University of Illinois is building a 1,000 volts DC, 200-kW "flying capacitor" scalable to a 1-megawatt with GaN-based field-effect transistor switches.