Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP)

Multiple small electric motors for boundary layer ingestion and control.
Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP)

DEP uses many smaller propulsors along the wing or fuselage to re-energize boundary layers, improve stall margins, and enable new configurations (blown lift, differential thrust for yaw). Key engineering challenges are fault tolerance, thermal management, electromagnetic interference, and integration with hybrid-electric power systems.

TRL
5/9Validated
Impact
4/5
Investment
4/5
Category
Hardware