The X-57 will look more like a Cessna, unlike some of NASA’s earlier sleek, futuristic X-planes.
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The hybrid electric research plane will have 14 electric motors to turn the propellers located on the long narrow wings. Named for James Clerk Maxwell, the Scottish mathematical physicist who dreamed of flight, the X-57, Bolden said, “will bring us to a new age of aviation”.
Nasa hopes to validate the idea that distributing electric power across a number of motors integrated with an aircraft in this way will result in a five-time reduction in the energy required for a private plane to cruise at 175 miles per hour.
Meet the X-57, also nicknamed “Maxwell”.
Apart from Nasa, some of the world’s industrial giants and a handful of pioneering airlines are also plunging headlong into developing commercially viable electric-power airplanes, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. His importance in contributing to the understanding of physics is rivaled only by Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton part of a four-year flight demonstrator plan, NASA’s Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research project will build the X-57 by modifying a recently procured, Italian-designed Tecnam P2006T twin-engine light aircraft. The plane has 12 other smaller 9 kilowatt motors that spin 2-foot-wide propellers to generate the necessary lift.
Last year, NASA casually announced its intention to disrupt the aviation industry by sticking fully electric commercial passenger planes in the sky in 20 years.
“The problem with traditional aircraft design is you have to size the wings so that you have safe takeoff and landing speeds, and so the wing tends to end up bigger than you need for cruise flight”, said Sean Clarke, co-principal investigator for the project at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.
The general aviation X-plane has received its official designation – the X-57 – and will be called Maxwell. Jet-powered aircraft often increase their fuel economy by flying at slower than they are capable, but a plane powered completely by electric propulsion like the X-57 could fly closer to top-speed without sacrificing efficiency. It could reduce overall operational costs for small aircraft by as much as 40%. I think all-electric would be a stretch for jetliners, he said.
NASA’s New Aviation Horizons initiative, based on the President’s 2017 budget request, will receive $10.6 billion over ten years in order to develop a cleaner transport system.
“Talking about going around the world in six hours or going from Dubai in NY in an hour”.
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Still, the Times report made Bolden’s position clear regarding NASA’s long-term goals in aviation.
