NASA Unveils Plans For Electric-Powered Plane (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from New York Times: 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 (Warning: source may be paywalled) designated as X-57 and nicknamed "Maxwell," part of the agency's efforts to make aviation more efficient and less of a polluter. "The X-57 will take the first giant step in opening a new era of aviation," Mr. Bolden declared. Maxwell is equipped with 14 electric propeller-turning motors located along the wings, which will all be used to create sufficient thrust during take-off and landing. Only two large motors on the tips of the wings will be used once it's up in the air. The plane is a result of NASA's "New Aviation Horizons" initiative: a 10-year program to create a new generation of X-planes that will make use of greener energy, use half as much fuel, and be half as loud as commercial aircraft in use today.

Comments

Re:Illutrates the flaw in electric vehicles

[dontbgay]

The distributed motors are a feature, not a bug. With current designs, manufacturers can't go with more smaller engines due to efficiency losses. The engines installed on aircraft now are used to provide thrust and the resulting wind across the airfoil from that forward movement is what provides lift.

This design is different because the smaller motors have higher efficiencies and are able to direct air over the airfoil directly instead of relying solely on forward thrust to provide the same wind. That adds to lift, which reduces takeoff distance, which reduces friction losses from the wheels.

Re:We've been over this

[Tough Love]

Power isn't the only problem with the concept. The wing loading is too high - that plane will glide like a rock if the motors quit. I also wonder about the turbulent flow over the wing from the prop wash, it seems far from the ideal lift/drag solution.