A system and method for an airplane

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system (40) for redistributing power in an aircraft with at least two electrical powertrain units (10), each powertrain unit (10) comprises a propulsion unit (15) powered by an energy storage unit (13); and a control system (41) configured to monitor operating status of each propulsion unit (15) and each energy storage unit (13); identify a malfunctioning unit (A-D) from the group of propulsion units (15) and energy storage units (13); and control at least one set of reconfiguration switches (28; 38; 48; 58) to disconnect the identified malfunctioning unit (A-D) from the system and to reroute power from one or more energy storage units (13) to one or more propulsion units (15). The system also comprises an auxiliary power supply (32) configured to provide extra power to the system, the control system being configured to —receive status information from the auxiliary power supply (32); —control the operation of the auxiliary power supply (32), and —provide power from the auxiliary power supply (32) to one or more of the propulsion units (15) by controlling the at least one set of reconfiguration switches (28; 38; 48; 58), wherein the auxiliary power supply comprises a turbogenerator (52) supplying DC power to the system via a rectifier (53), when connected. The invention also relates to a method for redistributing power in an aircraft.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.