https://jalopnik.com/rolls-royce-hir...lly-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.
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