NASA Announces X-57 Maxwell Electric Aircraft

The head of NASA announced the beginning of a new era in aviation

For the first time in ten years, NASA’s aircraft engineers began developing a new aircraft with an X (eXperimental) marking. The 57th model in the X series will be the aircraft on batteries and with electric engines - model X-57, codenamed Maxwell.

X series

A series of experimental aircraft X began with the X-1 , developed by Bell Aircraft in 1946 - the first aircraft with a rocket engine (produced by Reaction Motors) and the first aircraft in the history of aviation that broke the sound barrier. It happened on October 14, 1947.


^{Bell X-1 - the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. Photo: NASA}
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Bell X-1 was a cantilevered all-metal monoplane, with an unusual straight wing with cut ends and a relative thickness of 8%. To reduce vibrations while overcoming the sound barrier and at supersonic speeds to the aircraft, special dampers (shock absorbers) were designed to mitigate the oscillations.


^{Engine Reaction Motors XRL-11 for aircraft X-1. Photo: USAF. Photo: NASA}

On models of the X series traditionally experience promising technology. Some of them were developed specifically for the US Army and were classified for a long time. For example, the X-1, for the first time in history, reached supersonic speeds, was reported only eight months later.

Over the past half century in the X series, dozens of various experimental models of airplanes of all shapes, sizes and purposes, as well as several rockets have been developed. Another well-known representative of this legendary series was the X-15 rocket glider - the first and for 40 years the only manned aircraft in history that was hypersonic flying aircraft that made suborbital manned space flights.


^X-15

Established X-15 record height of 107.96 km lasted from 1963 to 2004.


^{X-15 circuit}

The latest model in the NASA experimental aircraft series was the X-56 , a modular unmanned aerial vehicle that was supposed to experience long-range high-altitude exploration capabilities (High-Altitude Long Endurance, HALE). The first test flight of the X-56 was made on July 26, 2013.


^X-56

In recent years, American aviation engineers took a short pause: since the X-56, not a single model appeared in the experimental X series, and NASA has not designed a single X-series aircraft for ten years.

Converted Italian

Finally, on June 17, 2016, this kind of engineering “embargo” was broken by NASA administrator Charles Bolden, who spoke on Friday at the annual forum of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Washington. He officially announced a new model of the X series: it will be the X-57 electric aircraft, codenamed Maxwell.


^X-57

The X-57 aircraft differs in wings of an unusual design and is driven by 14 propeller electric motors. The development of this model is under the project SCEPTOR (Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research) under the program for the development of electric engines in the Flight Research Center. Armstrong.

NASA engineers are going to launch a prototype X-57 by modifying the recently purchased lightweight twin-engine Italian aircraft Tecnam P2006T .


^{Tecnam P2006T}

This economical four-seater aircraft consumes only 34 liters of fuel per hour, developing a maximum speed of 287 km / h.


^{Tecnam P2006T circuit}

Instead of two Tecnam P2006T piston engines in the American experimental model X-57, 14 propeller engines will be mounted on an electric propulsion. Of these, 12 screws on the front edge of the wing are included only during acceleration, separation and landing, and two large screws on the edges of the wings are designed to move at cruising speed.

New era in aviation

As in the case with the Nikola Motor electric tractor , the main reason for the refusal of diesel fuel in favor of the electric power plant is the reduction of operating costs. Simply put, electric motors are much cheaper to operate and more efficient.

Developers from NASA believe that the distribution of electricity between the propeller engines built into the wings will lead to a five-fold reduction in energy during the flight of a private plane at a cruising speed of 280 km / h. As a result, overall operating costs for small aircraft will be reduced by 40% while maintaining high flight speeds. If earlier, in order to save fuel, aircraft had to fly at lower speeds, while electric engines eliminate this limitation, according to a NASA press release .

In addition, the electric aircraft battery will reduce emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere, compared with conventional engines. In particular, the transition to such aircraft will significantly reduce the consumption of aviation fuel containing additives on the basis of lead, which is still widely used in civil aviation.

"With the return of manned X-series aircraft to NASA's research capabilities - which is a key part of our 10-year initiative to achieve new horizons in aviation - the development of the X-57 aircraft will be the first step towards the beginning of a new era in aviation," said the head of NASA Charles Bolden. "

It looks like the future of ground transportation - for electric unmanned vehicles and wagons, so the future of aviation belongs to electric aircraft. At least that's what NASA thinks.

The new X-57 aircraft was named Maxwell in honor of the 19th century Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell , who published revolutionary scientific works on electromagnetism and together with Lorentz laid the foundations of classical electrodynamics (Maxwell-Lorentz equations).