Choosing brushless electric motors for aircrafts

Electric motor is one of the most fundamental requirements of aircrafts because it makes planes fly. Also, this is a clean and reliable source of power for models. This is exactly the reason why one has to careful while choosing them. Making selection of electric motors is not very far different from selecting engine, if you consider your basic needs. Here, you simply have to keep in mind the basic principle that make airplanes fly and use it select power plant for desired performance. Airplane’s performance is determined on the basis of power to weight ratio and flight speed envelope. In simple words, it is thrust to weight ratio and pitch speed that powers the performance of flying machines.

Therefore for selecting brushless electric motors, power should be first parameter. Generally, power to weight ratio for brushless electric motors is quoted in watts per pound (W/Lb). Since it is the performance gauge, more power provided per pound means better performance of airplane. Before choosing motor, one needs to keep the performance of the aircraft in mind. You can consider charts where you can find which performance aircraft needs how much power loading.

There are also some airplanes which are designed for glow engines or internal combustion. You can measure the power required on the basis of engine displacement. rnOnce you have known the required power, motor and battery can be selected. Don’t forget to look for power rating in the motor specification. It is safe to select power rating equivalent to the requirements. Neither less not more powerful motor will do the job; this is due to the reason that the motor must be able to handle the power requirement and torque to turn a propeller appropriately for the model aircraft. If model aircraft is of high speed, it will work fantastic with small prop at high RPM. On the other hand, slower model aircraft will work superior with large prop at lower RPM.

It is important to understand that the power is a product of torque and RPM. To get more power, both torque and RPM is required in large. However, for any given power one can have either of the torque and RPM in large. So when either of them is high, the other will be low. Another aspect to be considered while choosing electric brush motors is the prop size. Motor to be chosen must have prop size suitable to the model aircraft. Keeping all these factors in mind you can have brushless electric motors which are suitable for your airplane.