Rolls Royce has successfully completed the testing of the world’s fastest electric plane ‘ionBird’ as part of The project ACCEL to move towards their dream of net-zero carbon by 2050.
Culture Compass
Different organizations all over the world are trying to find innovations in electrical technology, and now the British luxury automobile maker Rolls-Royce’s attempt to build the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft has taken an important step forward with the completion of the testing of the ground-breaking technology that will power the world’s fastest all-electric plane. All the technology has been tested on a full-scale replica of the plane’s core, called an ‘ionBird’, including a 500hp electric powertrain powerful enough to set world speed records and a battery with enough energy to supply 250 homes.
The plane is part of our initiative called ACCEL, short for ‘Accelerating the Electrification of Flight’ which was launched at the Farnborough Air Show in 2018. Our ACCEL project team includes key partners YASA, the electric motor and controller manufacturer, and aviation start-up Electroflight. The team has been developing the technology at Gloucestershire Airport while adhering to the UK Government’s social distancing and other health guidelines and the systems will soon be integrated into our ‘Spirit of Innovation’ plane.
Now talking about the technology, the propeller of the plane is driven by three high power density axial electric motors and compared to a conventional plane, the propeller blades spin at a far lower RPM to deliver a more stable and far quieter ride. Combined they’ll continuously deliver more than 500 horsepower for the record run. Even during the record run the all-electric powertrain delivers power with 90% energy efficiency and of course zero emissions. (In comparison, a Formula 1 race car tops out at close to 50% energy efficiency).
References – Rolls Royce
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