Rolls-Royce confirms 1,000hp electric plane
British aviation firm is making a three-motor craft that'll be capable of a record-breaking 300mph and a 200-mile range
Unless you've a close ear to the aviation industry, it might be hard to fathom that in only a decade or two we could see electrified planes take to the skies for short haul flights. Using pure - or, more likely at first, hybrid-electric power - they're set to drastically reduce emissions, noise and ticket prices, once the cost of production comes down.
We'll all be familiar with the near identical shift to electrification that's already in full swing within the car industry, but for the air industry, ideas for commercial electric flight have barely left the test bed. So in order to demonstrate the validity of electric power in the skies and to show just how effective the tech already is, Rolls-Royce is developing a zero-emission aircraft to break the e-plane air speed record in 2020, as part of its 'Accelerating the Electrification of Flight' (aka Accel) programme.
The Gloucestershire aviation firm - which operates completely separately to the car firm that shares its name - will have to beat the 210mph record set by Siemens and its e-plane back in 2017. Rolls has confidently stated that it wants to "blow the doors off" that speed; engineers are said to be aiming for 343mph, which would match the speed of the Supermarine, a Rolls V12-powered seaplane that broke its class record in 1931.
Introducing ACCEL from Rolls-Royce on Vimeo.
Using a single-propeller 7.3-metre wide racing plane equipped with three e-motors supplied by YASA (a UK electric motor company), the one-seat craft will run at 750 volts and produce a combined 1,000hp. With power available from much lower rpm, the e-plane is said to be more stable than conventional craft, while also being much quieter.
As we know from electric cars, however, speed often comes to the detriment of range. The Rolls-Royce e-plane will need to use a large enough battery pack that's powerful enough to enable such pace, but one that's not so heavy it'll require immense amounts of energy to be flown - or cook itself under the strain. Rolls hasn't revealed exactly what type of battery tech it's developing ahead of the record run, but it does make mention of Formula E tech, suggesting lithium-ion could play a part. It says there will be 6,000 cells on board to provide a range of 200 miles between charges, with a targeted 90 per cent thermal efficiency.
"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," said Matheu Parr, manager of the project. "We're gaining the knowhow to not only pioneer the field of electric-powered, zero-emissions aviation - but to lead it. At this point, our confidence is sky high."
Of course, this is a single-passenger plane, so we're still far away from the days of commercial e-planes. But a hybrid-jet? That doesn't seem so hard to imagine. And with backing from the UK government, added to the fact that Rolls-Royce is the world's second largest plane powerplant manufacturer, this project certainly appears to be on the up and up...
Project mangers who can't correctly count the number of propellers fitted to their plane, quoting thermal efficiency for a battery electric system, and suggesting that a "hybrid" system would be of some use in an aeroplane.
1/5 Pistonheads, see me after school for extra homework.......
;-)
Then all you need is the fuselage to be wrapped in a flexible solar panel like solution as when you get up there - the clouds are often below you so solar could be helpful for a bit of recharging.
The larger aircraft would need huge amounts of electricity to power pressurisation and fuel and flight controls and landing gear and passenger entertainment etc etc.
The more electric passenger aircraft flying at the moment like the B787 have four massive generators on the engines and a few lithium ion batteries (which caused the aircraft to be grounded for weeks when they kept catching fire) for a few systems in an emergency.
The electric requirements are much much more than on a small propeller aircraft and they would have to be able to run for hours.
The larger aircraft would need huge amounts of electricity to power pressurisation and fuel and flight controls and landing gear and passenger entertainment etc etc.
The more electric passenger aircraft flying at the moment like the B787 have four massive generators on the engines and a few lithium ion batteries (which caused the aircraft to be grounded for weeks when they kept catching fire) for a few systems in an emergency.
The electric requirements are much much more than on a small propeller aircraft and they would have to be able to run for hours.
But as has been demonstrated many times before with technology, when we (as a race) really put our minds to it, things progress at an incredible rate.
Electrical energy storage density is the next big area for rapid development, and compared to just a decade ago has already increased significantly. It’s not going to be all that long (relatively) before batteries exceed the energy density of jet fuel, which currently stands at a ratio of 14:1. And it’ll make sense for commercial air travel long before it reaches that point.
Electric aircraft will be designed and configured very differently to fossil fueled aircraft. Electric propulsion systems will allow for more efficient airframe designs with much less drag, and other significant efficiency improvements over fossil fueled aircraft....for example, elimination of the high capacity onboard power generation systems that a modern airliner requires.
We will certainly see hybrid aircraft, I know we are currently developing and trialing an electric taxi engine (rather than taxi to / form the gate on main engines which is extremely inefficient).
Until batteries massively decrease in weight or hugely increase their energy density long range electric aircraft are a dream > unless you find a method of extremely efficient solar "recharge", but even then I can't see the FAA / CAA signing off on a system that is not guaranteed, certainly not for transatlantic or transpacific flights, which then means you have different aircraft models built on the same production line driving down synergies and costs up, so the focus will be on hybrid systems.
The biggest "drag" on an airframe are the engines, due to required access, checks, replacement, etc, is the main reason they hang down from the wing, you would gain efficiency by integrating them into the airframe but lose the ability for access, repair, overhaul, maintenance, etc > therefore any electric engine would need years of reliability proof before they would be integrated into the airframe, as you would be integrating from day1 of the product conception!
ETA;
Airbus have taken delivery of a new 3000V hybrid a/c.
Stepping up the pace
This plane – registered as G-WEFX – is not just any plane. Meticulous vetting on a set of detailed and crucial criteria was performed in as little as seven weeks to acquire the aircraft destined to become the embodiment of one of the most ambitious Airbus demonstrator projects to date: meet E-Fan X, the world's first 3,000 volt aircraft.
This major milestone achievement comes just one year after Airbus announced it would actively pursue the goal of achieving electric flight for mid-range aircraft. The E-Fan X is the essential stepping stone on that path, as it's the product of converting an existing aircraft into a hybrid-electric propulsion platform.
Electric flight and the game changer
Airbus has spent a lot of time researching electric propulsion over the past years by building E-Fan X smaller siblings eFan and eFan 2.0. The previous iterations were aimed at progressively increasing battery power. However, in 2016 the realisation came that in order to stay ahead of the curve and be first in achieving electric flight for future long range commercial, Airbus needed to radically change its strategy. This meant exponentially increase power supply and disrupt what it considered feasible, and disrupt itself along the way.
The main learnings from the previous eFan programmes serve to steer the roadmap for the E-Fan X: design the aircraft around the battery, increase power capacity exponentially from 400V to 3000V, and create hybrid propulsion as step-stone towards fully electric flight.
The team as well as its trusted external partners have been working tirelessly since early 2018 to push the envelope of technology conversion, engineering and the future of sustainable flight, and the near-term future for E-Fan X is exciting. 2019 Will be a crucial year for the demonstrator as it will need to grow up quickly and be plucked, scanned, weighed, tested, crafted and tested again.
There's nothing there that'll change if it's electric powered. OK you can eliminate the power gen systems & APU, but you'll need batteries to store the energy they create, plus back-up systems, so the weight & space will still be used.
Fossil fuelled aircraft could be much more efficient, for example by using a flying wing design, but other requirements - like getting all the passengers off in 90 seconds & hanging the engines in pods for easy maintenance make that impossible.
An A380 wing flexes 6ft or 12ft (I can't remember if its 6ft e/w from nominal or 6ft total) if I remember correctly from parked to inflight, jet fuel is obviously a liquid mass that can be moved from tank - tank - fuselage, etc, to help with ballast, batteries couldn't; huge engineering challenges ahead!
Why does the collective 'PH' question the experts in the field as if we know something that they don't.. or haven't thought about?
Perhaps RR do too and are just demonstrating technology or just getting some publicity?
There’s all kinds of people from different backgrounds on PHs so there’s certainly a chance some might know more than RR about the viability of different technologies. There’s a load of Boeing 787s with Rolls Royce engines grounded all around the world as they’re suffering from corrosion. There was B787s grounded because Boeing put lithium batteries that caught fire on them and got the design certified. There was a new Boeing 737max that crashed the other day because it had new anti stall technology that the crew weren’t adequately made aware of.
Aviation, awesome as it is, is full of mistakes and designs and technologies that didn’t work that well because humans are designing them.
Why does the collective 'PH' question the experts in the field as if we know something that they don't.. or haven't thought about?
It's called peer review and it's critical to our current and continued mastery of science and technology.
So, if you make a claim, i'm going to ask you to prove it. Simple really.
(and if you can prove it, with facts and physics, hey great, i'll back you 100% all the way !!!)
I thought this was just an electric small aircraft a sort of technology demonstration type of project? Which sounds great and is fantastic to see this kind of innovation happening.
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff