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:So many motors???

[Rei]

First off, airplanes putting electric motors in their landing gear is becoming a mainstream thing, it's a major fuel saving mechanism being employed by major manufacturers.

Secondly as has been pointed out in many comments above, there are numerous reasons for the approach, as it lets you increase air velocity across the wing (giving better wing performance) and use props more performance-optimized to their current flight environment.

Third, unlike ICE engines (the reason that this was impractical before), electric motors are very small and lightweight versus how much power output their produce.