Rolls Royce Hired Formula E Engineers To Build A Really Fast Electric Plane - ACCEL plans.jpg ...

Miloch wrote in
:

https://jalopnik.com/rolls-royce-hir...s-to-build-a-r
eally-1831527917

Rolls Royce leads a group of UK Government funded projects under the
name ACCEL, which is an abbreviation of “Accelerating the
Electrification of Flight” somehow. With the group’s newest flight
project, the Spirit of Innovation, they aim to exceed 300 miles per
hour, and sustain speed for at least forty minutes, enough to cross
over from London to Paris. It’s an ambitious project, and one that
Rolls hopes will kick off a “third wave of aviation.”

Rolls Royce was at the absolute forefront of airplane propeller driven
technology in 1931 with the Supermarine S.6B, which won the Schneider
Trophy for top speed that year with a max speed of 343 miles per hour.
That plane kicked off a series of innovations for Rolls Royce and gave
the company the notoriety it needed to become the leader in British
flight.

The current electric plane record is held by Siemens, which put up a
plane to 210 miles per hour in 2017. ACCEL team manager Matheu Parr
wants to blow that speed out of the water, and is using the
Supermarine’s speed record as the benchmark for the new Spirit of
Innovation.

“We’re monitoring more than 20,000 data points per second, measuring
battery voltage, temperature, and overall health of the powertrain,
which is responsible for powering the propellers and generating
thrust. We’ve already drawn a series of insights from the unique
design and integration challenges,” says Parr. “And we’re gaining the
know-how to not only pioneer the field of electric-powered,
zero-emissions aviation – but to lead it. At this point, our
confidence is sky high.”

This all-electric plane is set to fly sometime in 2020, and the
specifications look absolutely wild. For maximum frontal area
efficiency, the battery pack has to be small and compact, merging 6000
lithium cells with an advanced cooling system to help keep the
batteries stable. With three stacked YASA 750R electric motors, the
plane will have around 500 horsepower available to spin the modern
design propeller.

In order to make this project a reality, the highest tier aerodynamics
engineers from all over the UK were hired, primarily from within Rolls
Royce’s aerospace engineering division, as well as some from within
the motorsport community. This is truly an all-in mission for the
British industrial complex.



If it performs as well as my
electric car it has a real future.