Aircraft power and propulsion systems comprising permanent magnet electrical machines

Abstract

Reconfigurable permanent magnet electrical machines and aircraft power and propulsion systems comprising such electrical machines are described. In one aspect, an aircraft power and propulsion system comprises: a gas turbine engine; a permanent magnet electrical machine comprising a rotor drivingly coupled to a spool of the gas turbine engine, and a stator comprising windings controllably switchable between a star configuration and a delta configuration; a DC electrical network; an AC:DC power electronics converter, an AC side of which is connected to terminals of the stator windings of the electrical machine and a DC side of which is connected to the DC electrical network; and a control system. The control system is configured to monitor at least one operating condition of the power and propulsion system and to control the switching of the stator windings between the star configuration and the delta configuration based on the at least one operating condition.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.