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Rolls-Royce electric airplane completes its maiden flight

The single-seat plane took off from the UK Ministry of Defense Boscombe Down testing facility in Wiltshire, England on September 15 2021. During the 15-minute flight, Spirit of Innovation was propelled by a 400-kW powertrain consisting of three motors connected to a 6,000-cell battery pack. Rolls-Royce claims it is the most power-dense battery ever created for a plane.

Warren East, CEO, Rolls-Royce, said: The first flight of the -Spirit of Innovation- is a great achievement for the ACCEL team and Rolls-Royce. We are focused on producing the technology breakthroughs society needs to decarbonize transport across air, land and sea, and capture the economic opportunity of the transition to net zero. This is not only about breaking a world record; the advanced battery and propulsion technology developed for this programme has exciting applications for the Urban Air Mobility market and can help make -jet zero- a reality.

The Spirit of Innovation project is a part of ACCEL (Accelerating the Electrification of Flight), a British aerospace innovation program. Half of the project funding is provided by the UK Aerospace Technology Institute, in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and Innovate UK.

Rolls-Royce says it will use the the ACCEL project technology, and also measure the performance of the aircraft and the data collected on the maiden flight, and apply it to commuter aircraft and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) products.

Rolls-Royce is offering customers a complete electric propulsion system for their platform, whether that is an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) or commuter aircraft. Will be using the technology from the ACCEL project and applying it to products for these exciting new markets. The characteristics that air-taxis require from batteries are very similar to what is being developed for the Spirit of Innovation so that it can reach speeds of 300+ MPH (480+ KMH) - which Rolls-Royce are targeting in a world record attempt. In addition, Rolls-Royce and airframer Tecnam are currently working with Wideroe, the largest regional airline in Scandinavia, to deliver an all-electric passenger aircraft for the commuter market, which is planned to be ready for revenue service in 2026.