Rolls-Royce claims it has the world's fastest electric airplane.
Rolls-Royce claims it has the world's fastest electric airplane
Rolls-Royce, the company best known for its fancy cars, also has an electric airplane. Recently, it took the aircraft called the Spirit of Innovation for a spin, breaking a couple of world records in the process — and by a large margin.
According to Rolls-Royce, Spirit of Innovation has set several world records on a Nov. 16 flight. First, it achieved a top speed of speed of 555.9 km/h (345.4 mph) over the distance of 3 kilometres, which is nearly triple as fast as the previous, 213.04 km/h (132mph) record. It also achieved a speed 532.1km/h (330 mph) over 15 kilometres, another world first, and broke the fastest time to climb to 3000 metres by 60 seconds with a time of 202 seconds, Rolls-Royce claims.
The company says it submitted its data to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and hopes that the records will be made official.
At one point, the Spirit of Innovation achieved a maximum speed of 623 km/h (387.4 mph); Rolls-Royce says this probably makes the airplane the world's fastest all-electric vehicle, be it on air, sea, or land.
"Flying the 'Spirit of Innovation' at these incredible speeds and believing we have broken the world-record for all-electric flight is a momentous occasion," Rolls-Royce director of flight operations — and test pilot — Phill O’Dell said in a statement. "This is the highlight of my career and is an incredible achievement for the whole team."
The Spirit of Innovation uses a 400kW electric powertrain, as well as the "most power-dense propulsion battery pack ever assembled in aerospace," Rolls-Royce says. To build the airplane, Rolls-Royce partnered with aviation energy storage specialist Electroflight, as well as automotive powertrain supplier YASA.
More in Electric Vehicles
.webp)
EV Rolls Royce Flyer.
ReplyDeleteFuntabulous.
Yes
passenger liners next
DeleteUnfortunately it probably only has a range of 100km.
ReplyDeleteCall it Electric Avenue... and then they take it higher?
ReplyDeleteBut then down in the streets, there’ll be violence.
Deletespeed is not really a metric people care about with battery-powered airplanes. range is all that matters, and it’s not even mentioned. infuritating
DeleteThat, and looking at where the cockpit is placed, and assuming that it’s a taildragger, the visibility over the nose is going to be horrible when landing, like it was for the F4U Corsair.
DeleteA plane that can fly at 350 mph for 15 minutes isn't much use to anyone.
ReplyDeleteWhat you really want are time by distance records, as in 200km, 300, 500, 700, 1000 and 2000 km.
Better again would be distance + speed + payload records, i.e. fly the above distances with payloads of 1, 2, 5, 10 tons.
The problem is distance and payload at speed, not just absolute speed.
Electric power is easy; the problem is lightweight and compact electrical energy storage.
The land speed records for cars were not for regular production cars either, but contributed to their development.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of opportunities to demonstrate range, and payload etc in other records.
Be nice to hear the sound the plane makes instead of the music.
ReplyDeleteThere's something reminiscent of a Spitfire about this aircraft's appearance.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful looking aircraft, reminiscent of the H1 racer.
ReplyDeleteWhere the heck is the center of gravity? The weight of the batteries must be enormous
DeleteNow that's a beautiful aircraft, very sleek
ReplyDeleteIt's very cool. But what really matters about anything electric is not the speed but its endurance, especially when we're talking about air transport
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the Supermarine Schneider racers of the 1930's, from which the Spitfire was developed (I think). Very elegant.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous plane, great work
DeleteIt's an electric powered Nemesis NXT, originally designed by John Sharpe for racing in the Sport class at Reno. Rolls Royce provided the power system
ReplyDeletethought id seen it before somewhere.
DeleteI'm so excited for electric planes!!
ReplyDeleteThe future of transportation is indeed electrified. As an aviator myself, I love and welcome this new dawn.
ReplyDeletePerfect , pure rotary motion , and very pleasing on the eye .
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the best looking modern aeroplanes I have seen. I would love to have a go it that!
ReplyDeleteThats awesome from all perspectives, it looks sick in a beautiful way, good job
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the news article it claims to have already broken x3 World records including fastest climb by 60 seconds. However I came here to find out how long it can stay airborne? Congrats to Rolls Royce for paving the way with yet another masterpiece. I would love to see the entire outer skin made out of some kind of solar nano particles if they exist to charge it whilst it sours through the sky like a albatross.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what this leads to in the future
ReplyDeleteIt is a work of art!
ReplyDeleteThe airframe is a Nemesis NXT. I wonder how much faster it could be if it used an airframe which wasn't designed to house a piston engine. If the cowling behind the propeller was narrower it might make it more efficient.
ReplyDeleteGreat!!..it beats a piston engine still running on Avgas!!
ReplyDeleteKinda reminds me of a spitfire somewhat
ReplyDeleteGreat work! Keep going
ReplyDeleteThe cooling drag of electric planes is 1/10th that of a gasoline engine which means they can be more efficient.
ReplyDeleteWonderful airplane �� ;)
ReplyDeleteCongratulation Rolls Royce
A taildragger weighs less than the conventional nosewheel configuration, hence fly faster
ReplyDeleteI've seen that basic shape before somewhere. Some chap called R.J Mitchell I believe. Leslie Howard played him in a black and white movie I once saw on on a nostalgia channel. Now if only I could remember the name of the aircraft. ;)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though chaps, that is art in aeronautic form. Absolutely bloody beautiful. If you can say one thing & one thing only about the British aviation industry & that is we can always deliver gorgeous aircraft
It's a Nemesis NXT converted to electric power. It was originally designed as a Sport Class Reno Racer
Delete