Alitalia-WheelTug to introduce electric drive system for aircraft taxi

Alitalia and WheelTug announced the signing of a partnership to introduce an innovative electric drive system for taxiing the Airbus A320 family of aircraft. The patented WheelTug electric drive system consists of an electric motor – called “Chorus” – installed in the aircraft nose wheel and powered by the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit), the auxiliary engine installed in the tail of aircraft which provides energy to the onboard systems when the main engines are off. The equipment allows aircraft to taxi both forwards – without the use of main engines -and backwards – without the use of a tow tug. The Chorus electric motor allows the movement of the aircraft from the departure gate to the runway, and upon landing, from runway exit to the stand for passenger disembarkation. With this latest agreement Alitalia becomes the launch customer for this innovative technology, having reserved 100 WheelTug systems for its A320 aircraft.