Electric airplanes are too far away from becoming a reality in terms of mass air transportation (i.e. airlines). Many companies have realised the concept of electric aviation including Airbus (Airbus E-Fan), even have moved a step further towards solar powered aircraft such as Solar Impulse. But talking about today's reality either electric powered aircraft are too slow or incapable of accommodating descent sized payloads. In technical terms it is a huge trade-off i.e. The designer has to choose between performance and capability. Airbus has an innovative solution to it. Are you excited as I'm, ok here it is? Why don't we opt for both performance and capability? Yes really by choosing a hybrid solution we can do it. This innovative solution is called "Airbus E- Fan X." Let's listen to the Airbus's Professional's about it.
Video Credits: Airbus
Going hybrid helps us make electric aviation a huge success in realisation of the electrifying airways. Airbus's E-Fan X's did take a first step towards this fascinating aim. But recently the project has been... officially grounded. A greater insight is required on the functionality of the project. Airbus's E-fan X's aim is to replace one of the four engines of the test aircraft with an electric engine, this reduces air pollution to a significant amount. It also speeds up the electric airplane's velocity by 30 times, without compromising the payload capability. Lets have a technical insight through the below video
Video Credits: FLYER Mag
British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is an aircraft from the 1980s, it's been around a long time and this wind tunnel model was part of the original design and certification of that aircraft. So it's not new this aircraft is not designed to have hybrid electric systems on board. They're trying to take something that exists and turn it into a hybrid electric demonstrator. They have switched out some of the sections of the tunnel model to put those on so that the aircraft looks like E-fan X. While they're looking really at the overall design of the aircraft. So it includes aerodynamics where they're trying to understand the forces on the aircraft. The only changes they really found or discovered during the test program where they need slightly bigger areas and a need to change the porosity of some of the devices inside the ducts to ensure that they're related correctly to the full scale E-Fan X devices.
Video Credits: Airbus
"I believe this technology can be a stepping stone towards realising electric revolution of aircraft in large scale"
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