On Friday, NASA named an all-electric plane — the X-57 — as its latest futuristic aircraft. The X-57 will be powered by 14 electric motors driving propellers integrated into a new, narrow wing design (see artist’s conception above).
The battery revolution is truly taking flight: NASA has begun working on an effort “to help a significant portion of the aircraft industry transition to electrical propulsion within the next decade.”
At the same time, European aircraft maker Airbus is partnering with German industrial giant Siemens to develop “hybrid planes” that combine electric power with conventional fuel. Their joint development team would have some 200 employees.
European targets call for aircraft to cut CO2 emissions per passenger mile by 75 percent and noise by 65 percent relative to new aircraft in the year 2000. As the Airbus news release for the partnership noted: “These ambitious goals cannot be achieved by conventional technologies.”
Dr. Frank Anton, head of the Siemens team that has been setting records for high-power, lightweight electric motors for aircraft, has explained: “The use of hybrid electric drives would reduce fuel consumption by around 25 percent.”
The electric drives allows the combustion turbines to be smaller and operated near their maximum efficiency all the time (which is quite similar to the role the electric drive plays in a hybrid car like the Prius). And reliance on those drives during takeoff and landing makes the airplane much quieter.
“We believe that by 2030 passenger aircraft below 100 seats could be propelled by hybrid propulsion systems,” said Enders. The goal for such a plane is a range of some 600 miles, which is New York City to Detroit, Michigan range.
Ultimately, CEO Enders say, Airbus aims to develop “zero-emissions aviation.”
NASA’s electric X-57 plane part of SCEPTOR Project using LEAPTech propellers on HEIST wing
Right now, NASA has more acronyms than actually aircraft for its effort to help a large part of the aircraft industry start to “transition to electrical propulsion within the next decade.”
But NASA’s “first X-plane designation in a decade” on Friday by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden underscores that the agency is serious about this effort. NASA notes:
The X-57 number designation was assigned by the U.S. Air Force, which manages the history-making process, following a request from NASA. The first X-plane was the X-1, which in 1947 became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound.
The X-57 will be built by SCEPTOR — NASA’s Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research project. The key is the integrated wing and propeller design seen in the top image. NASA explains, “The Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology (LEAPTech) project will test the premise that tighter propulsion-airframe integration, made possible with electric power, will deliver improved efficiency and safety, as well as environmental and economic benefits.”
Normally, planes use a big wing to provide large amounts of lift at takeoff and landing. But the X-57 gets its lift by blowing more air over a very narrow wing using 14 motor-driven propellers — “12 on the leading edge for take offs and landings, and one larger motor on each wing tip for use while at cruise altitude.” The experimental wing will first be tested on the ground, with HEIST — the Hybrid-Electric Integrated Systems Testbed. [Note to NASA: Dial it back a little on the acronyms.]
For The First Time Ever, The World Is Cracking Down On Airline EmissionsClimate by CREDIT: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson The most carbon-intensive way to travel is also the one way that has…thinkprogress.orgThe stakes for this research are high. NASA aeronautical experts think they can show that “distributing electric power across a number of motors integrated with an aircraft in this way will result in a five-time reduction in the energy required for a private plane to cruise at 175 mph.” In particular, while airplanes today generally have to fly slower to optimize fuel efficiency, NASA notes that “Electric propulsion essentially eliminates the penalty for cruising at higher speeds.”
Ultimately, according to NASA, if this technology can be applied commercially, it “could benefit travelers by reducing flight times, fuel usage, as well as reducing overall operational costs for small aircraft by as much as 40 percent.”
At the same time, a plane using such a super-efficient system would be powered by batteries that could be charged entirely on carbon-free sources such as solar power — and such batteries are improving in cost and performance at a revolutionary pace. And, again, such a plane would be vastly quieter.
Finally, in case you were wondering, yes, Tesla CEO (and product architect) Elon Musk is also thinking about electric planes. Responding to a question in February about his “next great idea,” Musk — who is also CEO and CTO of the space transport company SpaceX — answered: “Well I have been thinking about the vertical takeoff and landing electric jet a bit more. I mean, I think I have something that might [be] close. I’m quite tempted to do something about it.”
The electric transportation revolution is just beginning to take flight.