NASA Unveils Plans for Electric-Powered Plane

[NWCorona]

Source: NYT


A new experimental airplane being built by NASA could help push electric-powered aviation from a technical curiosity and pipe dream into something that might become commercially viable for small aircraft.

At a conference on Friday of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Washington, Charles F. Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, announced plans for an all-electric airplane designated as X-57, part of the agency’s efforts to make aviation more efficient and less of a polluter.

For the X-57, the NASA researchers are designing narrower wings that are efficient during cruise flight, powered by two 60-kilowatt electric motors at the wingtips that spin five-foot-wide propellers.

For takeoff and landing, 12 smaller 9-kilowatt motors powering two-foot-wide propellers will kick in to blow extra air over the skinny wings to generate the necessary lift. In flight, the smaller propellers are folded away

Read more: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/science/nasa-electric-plane-x57.html

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It should be noted that the plane is not a new design. It will be based on an Italian made Tecnam P2006T.


That said, the propulsion system definitely is intriguing. Especially the the dual stage motor setup.

[jtuck004]

1. I was gonna build an electric car out of an old S-10 pickup, but this opens new possibilities...