Distributed Electric Propulsion Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 57.1% concentration. The top 5 of 40 ranked assignees account for 72 of the 126 records in scope — filing here is dominated by a handful of aviation and propulsion specialists, not a broad field of entrants.
- Filing has flattened, not accelerated. Activity peaked at 21 records in 2024 after a 2022 midpoint of just 3, and the leading filer's own output fell 70% year-on-year in the latest period.
- Claims cluster in aircraft equipment, not motors. B64D (aircraft equipment) touches 57.9% of the 126 records, far ahead of H02K electric motors at 13.5% — the crowded ground is system integration, not the motor itself.
Filing growth compares 2021 (20 records) with 2024 (21) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 126 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows about distributed electric propulsion
Distributed electric propulsion spreads thrust across multiple small electric propulsors rather than a single large engine, and the patent activity in this dataset follows that architecture into aircraft equipment, power distribution and motor design rather than clustering around a single component. Across 126 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026, the busiest claim territory is B64D aircraft equipment, covering just under three in five records, with B64C aeroplane and helicopter classifications close behind. Electric vehicle propulsion, marine propulsion, drone-specific classes, motor design and power-grid classes each appear in a smaller but still meaningful share of the same records.
Filing is concentrated at the top of the assignee ranking, but the trend line has cooled since its 2024 peak, and the most recent year is necessarily undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Read the following sections as a map of where claim density already sits and where it has not yet formed, not as a verdict on which approach will win commercially.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 126 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran at 13 in 2017, dropped to a low point around the 2022 midpoint of 3, then rose to a peak of 21 in 2024 before easing off. The 2026 figure of 3 is a partial-year count and will rise as later publications land, consistent with the usual 18-month lag between filing and publication.
IPC subclass composition
B64D aircraft equipment appears in 57.9% of the 126 records and B64C aeroplanes/helicopters in 33.3%, making airframe-level integration the densest claim territory. Electric motor design (H02K), power supply and grid systems (H02J), and vehicle propulsion classes (B60L, B60K) each cover a smaller slice, and because records can carry multiple IPC codes these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 126 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Distributed Electric Propulsion for Air Mobility with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about distributed electric propulsion for air mobility and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this dataset
Integrated Electric Propulsion Unit (US20220119121A1)
This Boeing filing claims an electric propulsion unit combining a housing, AC motor, hollow motor shaft, axially translatable beta rod, variable-pitch propeller, governor, inverter and controller in a single integrated assembly — pitch control is achieved by moving the beta rod inside the hollow shaft rather than through a separate actuation mechanism.Abstract text is drawn directly from the published filing.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170203839A1 | Hybrid Propulsion Vertical Take-Off and Landing Aircraft | 241 |
| 2 | US20220119121A1 | Integrated Electric Propulsion Unit | 60 |
| 3 | EP3805107A1 | Hybrid propulsion system for aircraft, method of operating a hybrid propulsion system, and a hybrid aircraft | 59 |
| 4 | US10926874B2 | Hybrid propulsion vertical take-off and landing aircraft | 44 |
| 5 | WO2017123699A1 | Hybrid propulsion vertical take-off and landing aircraft | 41 |
| 6 | JP2010161846A | Ac motor driving unit and electric propulsion unit using same | 38 |
| 7 | WO2012175624A1 | Improvement in ship propulsion engine fuel efficiency | 29 |
| 8 | US20060040573A1 | Electric propulsion unit | 25 |
| 9 | US20220234470A1 | Systems and methods for power distribution in electric aircraft | 23 |
| 10 | US20150266535A1 | Electric propulsion unit and torque transmission group for an electric scooter and corresponding scooter | 22 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat them as a measure of influence on the field so far, not of current technical importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three findings from the dataset that should shape where a new filing targets claim space, and where it competes head-on with dense prior art.
A small group holds most of the claim territory
The leader alone accounts for 27 records, and the top 5 combined cover 72 of the 126 records in scope. That leaves a long tail among the remaining 35 ranked assignees, many with only one or two filings, which is typical of a field still being defined by a handful of specialists rather than broad industry adoption.
Growth has flattened since the 2024 peak
Filing volume rose from a 2022 midpoint of just 3 records to a peak of 21 in 2024, but the leading filer's own output fell 70% year-on-year in the most recent period. Combined with several other tracked assignees showing zero filings in the latest year, this points to a field consolidating its existing claims rather than expanding into new ones.
System integration is claimed more than the motor itself
B64D aircraft equipment and B64C airframe classes dominate the composition, while electric motor design (H02K) and power supply/grid systems (H02J) sit well behind at 13.5% and 11.1% of records respectively. Prior art density is highest around how propulsors integrate with the airframe, not around motor or inverter design in isolation.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to distributed electric propulsion for air mobility, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked assignee list spans established aerospace primes, eVTOL developers and specialist electric propulsion firms, with filing concentrated among a small number of them.
The top filer sets the pace, but has slowed
The leading assignee's 27 records make it the largest single contributor to the dataset, yet its latest-year output fell 70% year-on-year, suggesting a pause in new filing rather than a retreat from the space.
Most participants file thinly
Beyond the top 5, the remaining ranked assignees — including established aerospace names, motor specialists and academic institutions — hold comparatively few records each, indicating exploratory or defensive filing rather than sustained programmes.
Co-filing is limited and clustered
Only seven co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest links tied to a helicopter-and-aircraft manufacturer pairing and a marine propulsion firm filing jointly with named inventors, pointing to a field where most work is still filed by a single entity rather than through joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Archer Aviation Inc. | 3 | -70% |
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
| Aurora Flight Sciences Corp | 0 | — |
| Wartsila Finland Oy | 0 | — |
| Askoll EVA S.p.A. | 0 | — |
| EVOLITO LTD | 0 | -100% |
| Politecnico di Milano | 0 | — |
| Eurocopter France SA | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking or identifying open claim space.
Map claims against a specific propulsor architecture
The IPC composition shows where prior art is dense at the subclass level, but a freedom-to-operate check needs claim-level comparison against a defined architecture, motor count and failure-mode strategy.
Explore in EurekaTrack the slowing leaders for re-acceleration
Several top assignees show zero filings in the latest year; monitoring their subsequent publications will show whether this is a lull before a new filing wave or a genuine pullback.
Set up monitoring in EurekaTest claim language in the under-claimed branches
Thermal management, power bus fault isolation and propulsor-array failure modes show comparatively lighter filing density than airframe integration, making them worth a closer novelty check before drafting.
Run a novelty check in EurekaCommon questions about distributed electric propulsion patents
Filing in this dataset is concentrated: the top five of 40 ranked assignees together account for 72 of the 126 records in scope, or 57.1%. The single leading assignee holds 27 records, making it the largest individual contributor. Beyond the top ten, which together hold 73.8% of records, filing thins out quickly into a long tail of assignees with only one or two records each, so a freedom-to-operate review should weight the top of the ranking heavily but not ignore the smaller filers entirely.
Filing volume rose from a low of 3 records at the 2022 midpoint to a peak of 21 records in 2024, but has since declined, and the leading assignee's own filings fell 70% year-on-year in the latest tracked period. The most recent year's count is partial and will understate true activity because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Taken together, the trend looks flat to declining rather than accelerating, which suggests the field is consolidating existing claims rather than expanding rapidly.
US20220119121A1, assigned to The Boeing Company, claims an integrated electric propulsion unit that combines a housing, AC motor, hollow motor shaft, axially translatable beta rod, variable-pitch propeller, governor, inverter and controller in a single assembly. Its distinguishing feature is achieving pitch control through the beta rod moving inside the hollow motor shaft rather than through a separate external actuator. A new design that avoids this specific mechanical linkage, or achieves pitch control through a different actuation path, would sit outside the core of what this claim covers, though a full clearance opinion needs claim-by-claim comparison.
Relative to the dense airframe-integration classes (B64D at 57.9% and B64C at 33.3% of the 126 records), areas such as thermal management of distributed inverters, power distribution bus fault isolation, and failure-mode reconfiguration across propulsor arrays show comparatively lighter filing density. This does not mean these areas are unclaimed, but the concentration of prior art is lower there than in system-level aircraft equipment claims. A targeted novelty search in these specific sub-areas is a reasonable next step before drafting new claims.
The most-cited records in this dataset, including US20170203839A1 with 241 citations, are among the oldest filings and have simply had more time to accumulate citations from later applicants working in the same space. A recent filing with few citations is not necessarily less important technically; it just hasn't had time to be cited. Citation counts inside a bounded corpus like this one are best read as a signal of historical influence on the field, not as a measure of a patent's current strategic value.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.