When aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce introduced the project plane ACCEL, it has a vision of becoming the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft. Fast forward to November 2021, the project plane, now dubbed “Spirit of Innovation”, is not only the world’s fastest electric aircraft but is also the world’s fastest electric vehicle of any kind.
On November 16, the Spirit of Innovation took to the skies at a U.K. Ministry of Defense testing site and reached a top speed of 555.9 km/h (345 mph) over 3 kilometers (1.9 miles), obliterating the existing record by a 213.04 km/h (132 mph).
Then it made further runs where it archived 532.1 km/h over 15 kilometers (9.3 miles), or 292.8 km/h (182 mph) faster than the previous record. That was not it. It also smashes the previous fastest climb to 3,000 meters records by 60 seconds with a time of 202 seconds.
That was also not the end of the story. According to the horse’s mouth, the Spirit of Innovation clocked a maximum speed of 623 km/h (387.4 mph) which is faster than any electric vehicle in existence.
Rolls-Royce said it has since submitted the data to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) – the World Air Sports Federation that controls and certifies world aeronautical and astronautical records.
The Spirt of Innovation is powered by a 400 kW motor, paired to a 750 volts battery system of 6,480 cells which feature innovative thermal protection by the way of Portuguese cork. Yes, you heard that right. Bottle cork is used to insulate the battery.
Also, if the aircraft looks vaguely familiar to aviation enthusiasts, well, that is because it is based on the Nemesis NXT airframe.
All images courtesy of Rolls-Royce.
via New Atlas.