All-electric, ultra-quiet, inexpensive air travel could be more than just a pipe dream, thanks to NASA's X-57 prototype aircraft
NASA is developing an aircraft that aims to take on some of the biggest challenges in aviation--lowering aircraft fuel requirements while running more silently and efficiently. From the looks of it, this experimental plane--named the X-57--appears gangly enough with its unusually thin wings and baffling array of propellers, but it’s all form following function. This aircraft is designed to take off at much lower speeds, while maintaining high efficiency while at cruising altitude.
To understand why this design is so radical, a quick primer on aeronautics. The basic function of an aircraft wing is to create lift. This is done by designing the wing so that its upper surface is curved (creating more surface area for air to rush over) while the lower surface is flat (lesser surface area for air to pass over.) The result--what is famously known as Bernoulli's principle--is the slower-moving higher pressure air beneath the wing pushing upward toward the faster-moving lower-pressure air above it, causing it to rise. The faster the aircraft’s speed, the greater this ‘lift’.
Which is where the X-57’s 12 electric motors come to special play--the mid-wing motors are designed to actually blow more air over the the wing during crucial times like takeoff (where extra lift is required,) after which they shut off and fold away for streamlining.
Once the aircraft reaches cruising altitude, the two larger propellers on the wing tips take over and provide thrust. Being located at the wing tips, the engineers address the challenge of drag-inducing vortices that tend to form at an airplane’s wingtips.
Even the wings are specially designed--given their thin profile, they are ideally suited to the low-drag requirements of efficient high-speed flight. Compared to conventional aircraft that require wider wings for generating the required lift during takeoff, this innovative wing and propeller design enables the plane to take off at speeds as low as 120 Km/h.
The airplane is still a ways away from production--the X-57 is only the first step in creating next-gen aircraft. As part of NASA’s New Aviation Horizons project, the space agency’s engineers will spend the next decade building numerous X-plane prototypes on their quest to crack the challenges of fuel efficiency, noise and emissions.
In an interview with Wired, Sean Clarke, the NASA engineer and co-principal investigator for electric propulsion and the X-57 says, “We are in a build, learn, fly spiral of development, taking what we’ve learned and putting it into new models.”
Watch this space--it’s about to get really interesting.
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 "NASA's experimental X-57 aircraft")
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