The Spirit of Innovation – the all-electric aircraft – has now been dubbed the fastest aircraft in the world. Both flights took place at an experimental site.
The aircraft hit an average of 555.9km/h over 3km, breaking the previous record by 213.04 km/h. The second attempt had an average of 532.1km/h over 15km, breaking the previous record by 298.8km/h. Both attempts have been verified as records by the World Air Sports Federation, according to BBC News.
This project is part of the UK Government-backed Accelerating the Electrification of Flight (ACCEL) project.
Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East commented that ‘Achieving the all-electric world-speed record is a fantastic achievement for the ACCEL team and Rolls-Royce.’
Rolls-Royce’s aerospace headquarters also stated that the propulsion battery pack was the most power-dense battery pack assembled for a plane ever – enough to charge 7500 phones!
‘This is another milestone that will help make ‘jet zero’ a reality and supports our ambitions to deliver the technology breakthroughs society needs to decarbonise transport across air, land and sea,’ said East.
Picture: Screenshot from video
ALSO READ