Electric Aircraft Propulsion Turbine Patents: Leader & Long Tail 2026
- Filing peaked in 2019 at six records and has not returned to that level since, despite continued industry announcements about hybrid-electric regional aircraft.
- One assignee's early filings dominate citations with the two most-cited records both describing the same regional air transit network concept, cited 392 and 249 times respectively.
- The IPC spread is narrow and aircraft-centric B64D and B64C carry nearly all activity, while turbine-specific classes F01D and F02K each hold only two records.
A small, concentrated field built around one powertrain concept
Twenty-six published families sit inside this search, spanning 2015 through the 2026 cut-off. Filing activity is thin and uneven rather than building steadily: a 2019 peak of six records was not sustained, and the midpoint year of 2022 sat at half that level. This is a field defined more by a small number of foundational filings than by broad, distributed activity. The most-cited records all trace back to the same regional air transit network concept for hybrid-electric aircraft, filed early in the window and repeatedly cited by later applicants working on adjacent powertrain and airspace-management claims.
Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the apparent flatness in the most recent years understates work already filed but not yet public. Even accounting for that lag, the composition of the corpus points to a technology still anchored in a handful of core architecture claims rather than a wide field of competing approaches.
Filing trend and technology composition
The two views below cover different questions: the trend chart shows when applicants filed, and the IPC breakdown shows what they claimed. Read together they explain why this looks like a narrow, early-anchored field rather than a broad emerging one.
A peak in 2019, no clear recovery since
Filings ran from zero in 2017 to a high of six in 2019, then eased back toward three by 2022. The partial 2026 count reflects publication lag rather than an actual drop-off in filing.
Aircraft-systems classes dominate over turbine-specific ones
B64D (aircraft equipment) appears in all 26 records, and B64C (aeroplanes and helicopters) in 15 — the corpus is framed around aircraft-level integration. Traffic control (G08G) and navigation (G01C) classes appear almost as often, while turbine-specific classes F01D and F02K each carry only two records, suggesting the underlying generator and turbine hardware is claimed elsewhere or left comparatively open here.
Shares are the percentage of the 26 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaThe records that anchor this field
Hybrid-electric aircraft, and methods, apparatus and systems for facilitating same (US11465763B2)
Hybrid-electric aircraft and a series hybrid powertrain configured to power the aircraft for a medium-haul flight. The series hybrid power train includes a plurality of energy storage units, at least one range extending generator, and a plurality of electric propulsors, each coupled to a distribution bus. The electric propulsors can produce a maximum thrust of at least 15 MW. During a cruise regime, the hybrid-electric aircraft can have an airspeed of at least 0.7 Mach at an altitude of less than 32000 feet, and the plurality of electric propulsors can have a fan pressure ratio of between 1.15 and 1.19.Filed by Zunum Aero, granted 2022-10-11. Part of the same family lineage as the two most-cited records in this corpus.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160236790A1 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 392 |
| 2 | US20200290742A1 | Hybrid-electric aircraft, and methods, apparatus and systems for facilitating same | 249 |
| 3 | US20180134400A1 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 87 |
| 4 | US9561860B2 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 69 |
| 5 | US10501194B2 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 36 |
| 6 | US20200346769A1 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 35 |
| 7 | EP3657468A1 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 18 |
| 8 | US11104444B2 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 16 |
| 9 | CA2996844A1 | Power train for a hybrid-electric aircraft | 15 |
| 10 | US20220219827A1 | System and methods for implementing regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft | 10 |
Citation counts favour older filings within a searched corpus; treat them as a measure of influence on later filers, not of current commercial relevance.
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Three patterns stand out once the trend and IPC data are read together: a concentrated citation base, a narrow claim footprint around turbine hardware itself, and a filing pace that has not scaled with the number of hybrid-electric aircraft programmes announced publicly.
A small set of early filings anchors the field
The two most-cited records, both describing a regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft, are cited 392 and 249 times respectively — far ahead of the next tier. New entrants drafting around powertrain-and-network claims should expect to encounter this lineage as prior art.
No sustained growth after the 2019 peak
Filing volume has not scaled past its 2019 high, and the 2022 midpoint sat at roughly half that level. Publication lag means the last one to two years are understated, but the multi-year plateau before that is a real signal of measured, not accelerating, patenting activity.
Turbine hardware itself is thinly claimed here
Only two records each fall in F01D (turbines) and F02K (jet and reaction propulsion), against 26 in B64D (aircraft equipment). The bulk of claim activity sits at the aircraft-integration level — powertrain architecture, energy management, airspace coordination — rather than on the turbogenerator or turbine hardware itself.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electric aircraft propulsion turbine engine, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it is still open
Assignee activity in this corpus is dominated by one early mover, with several established engine manufacturers holding filings but showing no recent-year momentum. That combination — a concentrated core plus quiet incumbents — is what defines the white space below.
Zunum Aero's foundational filings still anchor the corpus
Zunum Aero's early hybrid-electric aircraft filings, including the regional air transit network concept, remain the most-cited records in this dataset even though the assignee shows no filings in the latest year.
Engine incumbents hold ground without recent activity
Rolls-Royce, General Electric Aviation and Pratt & Whitney Canada all appear in the assignee set but each recorded zero filings in the latest year covered. Their presence signals watching-brief interest rather than active claim-building in this specific IPC intersection right now.
A short list, not a crowded field
With 26 total families across all assignees, this is a compact landscape. A new entrant is not fighting through dozens of overlapping filers — the practical question is how close a new claim sits to the small number of foundational records already cited heavily.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| ZUNUM AERO INC | 0 | -100% |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 0 | — |
| General Electric Aviation | 0 | — |
| Pratt & Whitney Canada | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a narrow, citation-concentrated field with specific gaps in turbine-hardware and thermal-management claims. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy, or spotting where to file.
Map claim boundaries around the core lineage
The most-cited records share a family lineage around regional hybrid-electric air transit. Before drafting in this space, a claim-by-claim comparison against that lineage clarifies exactly how much room exists around powertrain architecture and network-level claims.
Explore claims in EurekaTrack incumbent engine manufacturers for renewed activity
Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney Canada hold filings but show no recent-year activity in this dataset. A watch on their future publications would flag if any of them re-enter this specific IPC intersection.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaTest draft claims against the under-claimed branches
Thermal management, bus fault isolation and hybridization scheduling all show thin coverage relative to the aircraft-integration core. Running a candidate claim against the existing corpus early can confirm whether that gap is real or simply unindexed.
Run a claim check in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Zunum Aero holds the most-cited records in this corpus, including two filings describing a regional air transit network using hybrid-electric aircraft that are cited 392 and 249 times respectively. Those citation counts reflect influence on later filers within the searched corpus rather than current commercial deployment, since Zunum shows no filings in the latest year tracked. Established engine manufacturers including Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney Canada also hold filings in this space, but with no recent-year activity recorded.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 at six records and has not returned to that level since, with the 2022 midpoint sitting at roughly half the peak. Because publication typically lags filing by about eighteen months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate real activity. Even allowing for that lag, the multi-year plateau before the most recent years is a genuine signal that filing has not accelerated alongside public announcements of hybrid-electric aircraft programmes.
US11465763B2, assigned to Zunum Aero, claims a hybrid-electric aircraft with a series hybrid powertrain: energy storage units, a range-extending generator, and electric propulsors on a shared distribution bus, with specific thrust, airspeed, altitude and fan-pressure-ratio ranges during cruise. It sits within the same family lineage as the two most-cited records in this dataset, so its claim scope is a reasonable starting point for any freedom-to-operate check in this area. Designing around it means moving outside those specific numeric ranges or the series-hybrid architecture itself, rather than merely varying the propulsor count or storage configuration.
Turbine-specific hardware classes are thin relative to aircraft-integration claims: F01D (turbines) and F02K (jet and reaction propulsion) each carry only two records against 26 in B64D (aircraft equipment). That gap suggests narrower claims around turbogenerator thermal management, distribution bus fault isolation, and hybridization scheduling logic may face less crowded prior art than aircraft-level architecture claims do. Any specific claim drafted in these branches should still be checked against the existing corpus, since low record counts can also reflect classification gaps rather than genuine open space.
The search terms target hybrid-electric and turbo-electric aircraft propulsion concepts, which in practice get classified predominantly under aircraft equipment (B64D) and airframe classes (B64C) rather than under turbine machinery classes like F01D or F02K. This reflects how applicants and examiners have historically classified these filings: the aircraft-level integration is treated as the inventive core, while turbine or generator hardware details are often filed as continuations or claimed elsewhere. A researcher looking specifically at turbine hardware claims may need a separate search built around F01D and F02K directly, without the aircraft-level terms.
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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.
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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.