Rolls Royce E-Plane Takes Flight

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  • Rolls Royce has announced the completion of the first flight of our all-electric โ€˜Spirit of Innovationโ€™ aircraft.
  • The plane took to the skies propelled by its powerful 400kW (500+hp) electric powertrain with the most power-dense battery pack ever assembled for an aircraft.ย 

Warren East, CEO, Rolls-Royce, said:ย โ€œThe first flight of the โ€˜Spirit of Innovationโ€™ is a great achievement for the ACCEL team and Rolls-Royce. We are focused onย producing the technology breakthroughs society needs to decarbonise 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 advancedย battery and propulsion technology developed for this programme has exciting applications for the Urban Air Mobility market and can help make โ€˜jet zeroโ€™ a reality.โ€

Image credit: Rolls Royce

The aircraft took off from the UK Ministry of Defenceโ€™s Boscombe Down site, which is managed by QinetiQ and flew for approximately 15 minutes. The site has a long heritage of experimental flights and the first flight marks the beginning of an intense flight-testing phase in which we will be collecting valuable performance data on the aircraftโ€™s electrical power and propulsion system. The ACCEL programme, short for โ€˜Accelerating the Electrification of Flightโ€™ includes key partners YASA, the electric motor and controller manufacturer, and aviation start-up Electroflight. The ACCEL team have continued to innovate while adhering to the UK Governmentโ€™s social distancing and other health guidelines.

Image credit: Rolls Royce

Half of the projectโ€™s funding is provided by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Innovate UK. In the run up to COP26, the ACCEL programme is further evidence of the UKโ€™s position at the forefront of the zero-emission aircraft revolution.

Image credit: Rolls Royce

โ€œThe first flight of the Spirit of Innovation demonstrates how innovative technology can provide solutions to some of the worldโ€™s biggest challenges,โ€ said Gary Elliott, CEO, Aerospace Technology Institute. โ€œThe ATI is funding projects like ACCEL to help UK develop new capabilities and secure a lead in the technologies that will decarbonise aviation. We congratulate everyone who has worked on the ACCEL project to make the first flight a reality and look forward to the world speed record attempt which will capture the imagination of the public in the year that the UK hosts COP26.โ€

Author: Bryan Groenendaal

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