NASA will build electric X-plane with 14 engines

NASA X aircraft

14 electric motors integrated into a novel design wing, NASA plans to test electric propulsion using a baptized experimental aircraft X-57.

"With the return of X-planes piloted for NASA research - which is a key part of our 10-year project called New Horizons Aviation - the X-57, with commercial dimensions, will be the first step in opening a new era of aviation, "said NASA administrator Charles Bolden.

The X-planes, always called the future aircraft, have a long history. The first was the X-1, which became the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947. The X-37 is in operation, a kind of unmanned space shuttle.

Currently, the most futuristic X aircraft is a supersonic passenger plane, still unnumbered.

NASA has announced plans to build at least five X-planes with dimensions equivalent to those of commercial aircraft that they aim to replace. The goal - as well as the X-57 - includes demonstration of advanced technologies to reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions and noise. With demonstrators on a commercial scale, the expectation is that its introduction on the market is accelerated.

The concept and objectives are quite different from another electric aircraft from NASA, designed for vertical takeoffs and landings.



Maxwell

The X-57 will not be built from scratch. Engineers are modifying a P2006T twin-engine manufactured by the Italian Tecnam.

His original wing and its two piston engines will be replaced by a long, thin wing, which will be built 14 electric motors - 12 in the main board for takeoffs and landings, and a larger engine on each wing tip, for use in altitude cruise.

NASA engineers hope to validate the theory that the distribution of electricity through a large number of integrated motors results in a fivefold reduction in the energy needed for a commercial-size aircraft fly at 280 km / h, reducing costs operating these small aircraft up to 40%.

The X-57 has also goes by the nickname "Maxwell", a tribute to James Clerk Maxwell, the Scottish physicist of the 19th century did the pioneering work on electromagnetism, laying the foundation for Einstein's theories - though little known to the public, Maxwell is considered the same "stature" science that Newton and Einstein, having made the bridge between the two.