Distributed Electric Aircraft Propulsion Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (138 records) with 2024 (232) — 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 1,385 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape maps 1,385 patent records published between 2015 and mid-2026 that describe distributed electric propulsion, multi-motor aircraft architectures and hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion systems. The search combines terms for the propulsion architecture itself with terms for the aircraft context, so the corpus captures both propulsor-level hardware claims and system-level integration claims rather than electric motors or batteries filed for unrelated vehicle types.
Records span receiving offices in the United States, Europe, the WIPO PCT route, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, reflecting where the leading aerospace and eVTOL filers actually seek protection rather than a single home jurisdiction.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,385 records: filing activity over time, and the IPC subclasses those records fall under.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 59 in 2017 to a peak of 264 in 2023, with 2021's 138 climbing to 232 by 2024 — a 68% rise over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures (down to 11 by 2026) reflect publication lag rather than a real slowdown, since publication typically trails filing by around 18 months.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
B64D (aircraft equipment) covers 57.5% of the 1,385 records, with B64C (aeroplanes & helicopters) at 24.6% and H02K (electric motors & generators) at 19.6%. Because records carry multiple classes, these shares sum to more than 100% — the pattern shows where claim density concentrates, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,385 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electric & Hybrid-Electric Aviation — Distributed Electric Aircraft Propulsion Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US11233470B2 — Synchronization of generator and electric motor in a hybrid electric aircraft propulsion system
The patent describes a method and system for operating a hybrid electric aircraft propulsion system, modulating AC electric power applied to a first or second electric propulsor from at least one motor inverter to synchronize propulsor frequency with generator frequency.Filed by Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp., published 2022-01-25.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160023773A1 | Hybrid electric pulsed-power propulsion system for aircraft | 165 |
| 2 | US20180354632A1 | Propulsion system for an aircraft | 92 |
| 3 | US20170291712A1 | Hybrid electric aircraft propulsion incorporating a recuperated prime mover | 72 |
| 4 | US20200407060A1 | Novel aircraft design using tandem wings and a distributed propulsion system | 54 |
| 5 | US20200385139A1 | Integrated electric propulsion assembly | 50 |
| 6 | US20200317332A1 | Tandem wing tail-sitting aircraft with tilting body | 49 |
| 7 | EP2985901A1 | Hybrid electric pulsed-power propulsion system for aircraft | 47 |
| 8 | EP3243750A1 | Distributed propulsion | 46 |
| 9 | US20220057451A1 | System and method for estimation of battery state and health | 45 |
| 10 | US20210107664A1 | Electric aircraft propulsion system | 44 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — treat this as a signal of influence, not of current technical importance.
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Three patterns worth understanding before drafting or licensing in this space.
A small group controls most of the claim space
The top five assignees combined account for 858 of the 1,385 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 1,006 records, or 72.6% of the field. A single leader holds 301 records — well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 64 — so the field is not evenly fragmented; it is dominated at the top with a long tail below tenth place.
Growth is real but recent momentum is uneven across leaders
Filings climbed from 138 in 2021 to 232 in 2024, a 68% increase that marks the field's most reliable growth signal. Yet several top assignees show sharp year-over-year declines in the latest tracked year — patterns consistent with publication lag rather than an actual pullback from the technology.
Systems integration outweighs component-level filing
B64D (aircraft equipment) claims dominate at 57.5% of the 1,385 records, well ahead of motor-specific H02K (19.6%) and power-conversion H02M (9.6%). This suggests the densest claim activity sits at the level of how propulsors integrate into the airframe and power architecture, not at the level of the motor or converter component itself.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electric & hybrid-electric aviation — distributed electric aircraft propulsion patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Safran Electrical & Power | Safran Landing Systems | 10 |
| Safran Electrical & Power | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | 7 |
| Rolls-Royce plc | Rolls-Royce North American Technologies, Inc. | 6 |
| Safran Electrical & Power | CENT NAT DE LA REACHERCHE SCI | 3 |
| Rolls-Royce plc | Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG | 1 |
| Archer Aviation Inc. | SPITERI STEPHEN | 1 |
| Archer Aviation Inc. | SONI HARSHIT | 1 |
| Safran Electrical & Power | Safran Helicopter Engines | 1 |
Only 8 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings link corporate affiliates or research-institute partnerships rather than cross-competitor alliances — co-development here is still the exception, not the norm.
Where to take this next
The landscape points to specific follow-up work depending on what you need to decide.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the leading portfolio
With one assignee holding 301 of 1,385 records, any new filing in propulsor synchronization or hybrid power-split control should be checked against that portfolio first.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the under-claimed control and thermal branches
Fault isolation, cross-motor thermal management and inverter synchronization show thinner filing density relative to the systems-integration classes — a reasonable place to look for open claim space.
Map white space in EurekaWatch for the 2025–2026 filings still publishing
Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, the real 2025 and 2026 filing volumes will only become visible over the next reporting cycles.
Set a monitoring alert in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads with 301 of the 1,385 records in this landscape, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 64. The top five assignees combined hold 858 records, or 61.9% of the field, and the top ten extend that to 1,006 records, or 72.6%. This means the field is concentrated at the top with a long tail of smaller filers below tenth place, so competitive analysis should start with the leading portfolio rather than treating the field as fragmented.
Yes, based on the most reliable complete-year data: filings rose from 138 in 2021 to 232 in 2024, a 68% increase. The dataset shows a peak of 264 filings in 2023. Counts appear to drop sharply in 2025 and 2026, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual decline, so those most recent years should not be read as a slowdown.
Aircraft equipment claims under IPC class B64D appear on 57.5% of the 1,385 records, making it the single most common classification. Aeroplane and helicopter architecture claims (B64C) follow at 24.6%, and electric motor and generator claims (H02K) at 19.6%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, but the pattern shows that systems-integration claims outweigh component-specific ones in filing density.
US11233470B2, assigned to Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. and published on 2022-01-25, covers a method for synchronizing the frequency of an electric propulsor with a generator by modulating AC electric power through at least one motor inverter in a hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion system. It is a control-method claim rather than a hardware claim, so it primarily constrains how frequency synchronization between propulsor and generator is achieved rather than the physical propulsor or generator design itself. Anyone building multi-motor synchronization logic for a hybrid-electric system should review its specific claim language before finalizing a control architecture.
Relative to the dense systems-integration filing under B64D, several adjacent control and thermal branches show thinner activity, including propulsor-level fault isolation, cross-motor thermal management for distributed arrays, and battery-to-propulsor power routing topologies. These are not zero-activity areas, but they sit below the density seen in aircraft equipment and motor classes, suggesting more room for a differentiated first claim. Any white-space assessment should be paired with a freedom-to-operate check against the leading assignee's 301-record portfolio.
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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.