This article was first published in the July 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
This aircraft wing runs on 18 propellers -- and intends to turn the aviation industry electric. “With the normal integration of a propeller on each wing you get an overall efficiency of around 20 per cent,” says Mark Moore, principal investigator of the LEAPTech project at Nasa's Langley Research Center in Virginia, where the wing is being developed. “We should be able to achieve 98 per cent.”https://www.wired.co.uk/subscribe
Despite improvements in electric motors in the past ten years, battery development hasn't kept up, leaving electric planes such as the Airbus E-Fan constrained to less than an hour of flight time. Nasa's solution, in collaboration with California companies Empirical Systems Aerospace and Joby Aviation, is to increase the aircraft's efficiency via distributed propulsion. “Unlike turbine engines, the power-to-weight ratio of electric remains good, no matter the size,” explains Moore. This means two propellers can be swapped for 18 smaller ones distributed across the wingspan, increasing lift at take-off and allowing for smaller wings that perform better in the air.
The 9.4-metre wing has other advantages. Electric motors allow for tighter control over rotation speed, so each can be set at a slightly different RPM, spreading the noise produced across multiple frequencies and reducing noise pollution.Moore says the wing could be ready for commercial use on planes such as the 74-passenger ATR 72 within five years. “It has the potential to introduce renewable-based electricity for aviation,” he says. We hope it takes off.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
