Education
California Institute of Technology.
California Institute of Technology.
Wally has a prominent role, labeled as himself, "Research Engineer, AeroVironment," in the 2006 documentary movie Who Killed the Electric Carolina?, including two brief scenes in the official trailer. In the 1970s and 1980s, Rippel worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on electric vehicle battery research, among other things. Around 1990, Rippel joined AeroVironment and helped to design the General Motors Impact, later named the EV1.
He had worked on the induction motor for the car before joining AeroVironment.
In 2003, he was one of the participants in the mock funeral for the EV1 as General Motors prepared to collect the last few for crushing. Rippel left AeroVironment in 2006 and joined Tesla Motors, where he continued his lifelong work on the battery electric car.
He left Tesla in 2008. The United States Pacific Theater of Operations lists 24 issued patents with Rippel as inventor: United States 6954010 Lamination cooling system 2005-2010-11 United States 6674164 System for uniformly interconnecting and cooling 2004-2001-06 United States 6232742 Dc/ac inverter apparatus for three-phase and single-phase motors 2001-2005-15 United States 5914590 Electrical power regulator 1999-1906-22 United States 5751150 Bidirectional load and source cycler 1998-1905-12 United States 5441824 Quasi-bipolar battery requiring no casing 1995-1908-15 United States 5099187 Power connect safety and connection interlock 1992-1903-24 United States 5099186 Integrated motor drive and recharge system 1992-1903-24 United States 5041780 Integrable current sensors 1991-1908-20 United States 4920475 Integrated traction inverter and battery charger apparatus 1990-1904-24 United States 4884631 Forced air heat sink apparatus 1989-1912-05 United States 4874681 Woven-grid sealed quasi-bipolar lead-acid battery construction and fabricating method 1989-1910-17 United States 4873460 Monolithic transistor gate energy recovery system 1989-1910-10 United States 4873161 Positive paste with lead-coated glass fibers 1989-1910-10 United States 4664992 Composite battery separator 1987-1905-12 United States 4603093 Lead-acid battery 1986-1907-29 United States 4570212 Silicon controlled rectifier polyphase bridge inverter commutated with gate-turn-off thyristor 1986-1902-11 United States 4415963 FET commutated current-FED inverter 1983-1911-15 United States 4353969 Quasi-bipolar battery construction and method of fabricating 1982-1910-12 United States 4319318 Voltage reapplication rate control for commutation of thyristors 1982-1903-09 United States 4275130 Bipolar battery construction 1981-1906-23 United States 3808481 Commutating Circuit for Electrical Vehicle 1974-1904-30 United States 3641364 SCR Chopper Circuit 1972-1902-08.