NASA developing battery-powered airplane Maxwell coming soon

NASA is developing a new battery-powered experimental airplane that has been nicknamed ‘Maxwell’. The new airplane will be quieter, more efficient and will reduce flight times thus benefitting the travellers. Not just this, it will also reduce fuel usage as well as the overall costs.

14 electric motors turning propellers have been integrated into a uniquely-designed wing. An experimental airplane now designated the X-57 and nicknamed ‘Maxwell’ will be used by NASA to test the new propulsion technology.

“With the return of piloted X-planes to NASA’s research capabilities which is a key part of our 10-year-long New Aviation Horizons initiative the general aviation-sized X-57 will take the first step in opening a new era of aviation,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

As part of the initiative, five larger transport-scale X-planes have also been planned. Like the X-57, its goals will include demonstrating advanced technologies to reduce fuel use, emissions and noise, and thus accelerate their introduction to the marketplace. The X-1 was the first X-plane, which became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947.

The airplane is named after James Clerk Maxwell, the 19th century Scottish physicist who did groundbreaking work in electromagnetism. NASA researchers, who are directly working with the electric airplane, chose the name to honour Maxwell.

NASA’s Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research project is part of a four-year flight demonstrator plan. An Italian-designed Tecnam P2006T twin-engine light aircraft will be modified to build the X-57.

A long, skinny wing embedded with 14 electric motors will replace the aircraft’s original wing and two gas-fuelled piston engines. 12 electric motors will be placed on the leading edge for take offs and landings, while one larger on each wing tip for use while at cruise altitude.

NASA’s aeronautical innovators hope that a five-time reduction in the energy required for a private plane to cruise at over 280km per hour will be achieved by distributing electric power across a number of motors integrated with an aircraft in this way.
Only two batteries will be used to power the ‘Maxwell’. This will eliminate carbon emissions and demonstrate how demand would shrink for lead-based aviation fuel still in use by general aviation.

Energy efficiency at cruise altitude using X-57 technology could benefit travellers by reducing flight times, fuel usage, as well as reducing overall operational costs for small aircraft by as much as 40 per cent.

Typically, to get the best fuel efficiency an airplane has to fly slower than it is able. Electric propulsion essentially eliminates the penalty for cruising at higher speeds.

Electric motors are more quiet than conventional piston engines. The X-57’s electric propulsion technology is expected to significantly decrease aircraft noise. 

(With inputs from PTI)