Centennial Innovates is developing a structural jig to perform vertical drop tests on battery packs for electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. These tests are essential to assess the structural integrity of battery packs through free-fall drops—a key requirement in future design validation and safety certification processes aligned with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards.
This work is being conducted in close collaboration with MOSTAVIO, an advanced air mobility company developing a 2–3 passenger autonomous eVTOL vehicle. MOSTAVIO has designed a novel Kevlar-based battery compartment, which has already been accepted for presentation at the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) Conference 2025. The upcoming drop tests will help validate how this new design performs under industry-standard impact testing, providing critical data to guide next-stage refinements and safety certification efforts.
To replicate FAA-compliant testing, the Centennial team is designing a rig that can simulate a 50-ft free fall, with the battery pack mounted beneath a platform to measure impact forces. The team will produce mechanical drawings, a bill of materials, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) results, a data acquisition system, and a full test procedure. As a first step, the test will be conducted on a smaller scale using Centennial College’s existing 15-ft drop tower at the Landing Gear Innovation Lab (LGIL) — a structure originally designed by Centennial students for a separate application. The team has adapted the platform through detailed analysis and engineering calculations to ensure it can safely and effectively simulate the test conditions. Materials and components were selected based on mechanical properties, cost, and ease of assembly.
The project is currently in the assembly phase, with components being integrated into the 15-ft drop tower. Testing and data collection are scheduled for completion by the end of April 2025. These initial results will offer valuable insight into the performance of MOSTAVIO’s novel battery pack design and lay the groundwork for full-scale 50-ft drop testing later this year.