H3X Technologies announced the completion of an investment by Lockheed Martin Ventures (LMV), the venture arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation. H3X designs and manufactures advanced electric motors to enable sustainable aviation and other high-performance applications. This latest funding brings the total raised by H3X to $9 million.

The investment will be used to accelerate technology development and commercialization of H3X’s HPDM family of integrated motor drives and the scale-up of their new headquarters facility in Louisville, Colorado for production.

H3X has made advancements in several different areas that enable them to reach continuous specific powers of >10kW/kg and best-in-class efficiency. These areas include electromagnetics, material science, power electronics, additive manufacturing, motor control, and thermals. H3X has invested heavily in vertical integration and does design, manufacturing, and testing in-house at their headquarters in Louisville, Colorado.

H3X originally developed this technology to enable compelling fully-electric and hybrid-electric aircraft with excellent range and payload capacity while also significantly reducing noise and operational costs.

Today, best-in-class motors and inverters have a combined power density of 3-4 kW/kg. ARPA-E has determined that for a Boeing 737 to complete a typical five hour flight, the propulsion system must be >12 kW/kg continuous, H3X says. At 12 kW/kg continuous, the HPDM exceeds ARPA-E’s requirements and is at least 3X better than current systems.

When you look at the power density and efficiency requirements that are needed for electrifying narrow-body jets, there really isn’t anything out there that is sufficient. The Megawatt-class systems that you can buy today still use technology from the last century and are far too large, heavy, and inefficient to meet the demanding requirements of electric aviation.

—Jason Sylvestre, Co-Founder and CEO of H3X

Additionally, H3X has found that there are a number of other markets that can also benefit from their technology including defense, marine, specialized ground vehicles, and power generation.

H3X currently has three base products: the HPDM-30, the HPDM-250, and the HPDM-3000. These three units all utilize the same core technology and range in power from 30kW to 3MW. Additionally, the core technology is scalable and modular and can be used to build highly integrated, aerospace-grade solutions that are tailored to match specific customer requirements.