Ocellott: Solutions for aircraft electrification and ‘flying cars’

Like automobiles, aircraft with electric or hybrid propulsion are expected to become available within the next few years. A series of technologies being developed by a startup incubated at the São José dos Campos Technology Park, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, could help achieve this goal for the aviation sector sooner.

Through projects (16/21242-0 and 21/06591-7) supported by the FAPESP Innovative Research in Small Businesses Program (PIPE), Ocellott is developing batteries and high-voltage electrical distribution systems consisting of electronic boxes, power converters, and controllers for aeronautical electrification.

The startup will participate in an aeronautics research lecture session during FAPESP Week France, which will take place from June 10th to 12th in Toulouse. It was also one of ten companies invited by the Foundation to present at the University of São Paulo (USP) stand at the international VivaTech fair, one of Europe’s largest technology and startup events, which will take place from June 11th to 14th in Paris.

VivaTech 2025 will explore the latest technological innovations from economic, geopolitical, social, and environmental perspectives. Last year, 165,000 people visited the various stands at the fair. 

“Participating in VivaTech will give visibility to the projects we’ve developed in a place where there’ll be potential customers, such as aircraft developers, who are the main users of these systems,” Rodrigo Junqueira, a control and automation engineer and the company’s business director, told Agência FAPESP.

Ocellott has developed a line of surge protection devices designed to protect aircraft from lightning strikes. Similar equipment is already installed on the Praetor family of executive jets and the Embraer KC-390 cargo plane.

The company’s engineers are currently creating a line of emergency batteries for use in Embraer aircraft and in jets produced by other manufacturers, such as Cessna and Gulfstream.

“This type of battery allows pilots to carry out emergency procedures in the event of an electrical breakdown, in which there is a loss of power to the aircraft’s control surfaces,” Junqueira explains.

Ocellott is also developing batteries to power the engines that will be used to propel both electric and hybrid aircraft, as well as electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), popularly known as “flying cars.”

It is estimated that electric aircraft, such as eVTOLs, and hybrids will begin taking to the skies within the next two to three years, as some models are already in the final stages of development.

“Some of the challenges that manufacturers will have to overcome to achieve this goal are precisely related to the batteries, which will need to have more advanced chemistries, greater autonomy, and be lighter and safer than those used in cars, for example, because there’s no roadside in the sky,” the researcher jokes.

In addition to batteries, another challenge for aeronautical electrification is the use of high voltage. This is because the current systems used in traditional aviation operate at low voltage, according to the researcher.

“In this new aviation, the amount of energy and power needed to fly these aircraft will require alternating current and solutions that have never been used before in airplanes. That’s the big challenge, and we’ve been working on developing high-voltage systems,” he said.

Environmental impacts

One of the concerns related to the batteries that will be used in these new aircraft is their environmental impact upon disposal. One solution being studied is to repurpose the batteries after their useful life has ended, Junqueira explains.

“A battery used in an aircraft, which has reached its maximum charge of 80%, for example, and is no longer suitable for flying, could be used to electrify a city. This would represent a second application for these batteries, generating more savings with a smarter ecological footprint,” he says.

Aviation is currently responsible for between 2% and 4% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is expected that electric and hybrid aircraft will contribute to halving these figures.

“Of course, this replacement won’t happen immediately. Conventional types of propulsion will continue to exist for a long time yet, but the trend is that, as the technology evolves, these replacements will begin to be made over time. Perhaps in 30 or 40 years, it’ll be possible to see a major impact of electrification in the aeronautical world,” says Junqueira.