How do you fly 300 miles per hour with no fuel in the tank?

When you hear the word battery, what do you think of? Those things you scrabble around in drawers for when the TV remote is playing up? The tiny cell that powers the wristwatch you refuse to give up, even though the phone in your pocket has largely made it defunct?

Chances are what you’re not thinking about is the most power-dense battery pack ever assembled for an aircraft, capable of providing enough energy to fuel 250 homes or fly from London to Paris on a single charge. Or set a world air speed record of over 300mph, as the team behind Rolls-Royce’s ACCEL programme – who most definitely are thinking about this type of battery – hope it will.

6,000 cells,

packaged for maximum lightness and thermal protection

300mph+

target speed for the ACCEL world record attempt

500hp+

powerplant propelling the aircraft to that speed

It’s a hope, however, founded on months of hard work. Months of intensive planning, engineering and testing of the battery, driven by a commitment to finding meaningful, sustainable solutions to some of the greatest environmental challenges the world faces today. At the heart of this – alongside an equally impressive racing airframe, lightweight YASA e-motors and a state-of-the-art digital avionics bay – lies the battery.

Comprised of 6,000 cells and an advanced cooling system that can withstand the extreme temperatures and high-current demands during flight, the battery has undergone intensive testing to ensure it’s able to not only push at the boundaries of what is possible, but do so in a way that is also safe and airworthy. That’s where the ‘ionBird’ test-rig came into play, taking its name from the Li-ion technology that the battery is based on. Similar rigs have long been used in aviation for testing propulsion systems ahead of flight, and the ionBird represents an evolution in the system that will likely prove invaluable as we develop further clean energy solutions. The ionBird enabled the team, amidst the challenging and changing restrictions of the COVID-19 landscape, to increase and accelerate the level of testing on the battery. This ensured the battery was able to reach maximum possible performance before it was even integrated onto the plane.

In perfecting the battery for the Spirit of Innovation’s world record attempt, the possibility for wider applications begin to emerge. We have particular high hopes for the impact such batteries will have on a new generation of ‘Urban Air Mobility’ concepts. It’s an exciting new market that will rely on clean, quiet and energy efficient power, and perfectly ties in with our mission to reach net zero by 2050. So while today the aim for our ACCEL battery is to power a 300mph+ flight, tomorrow that same or similar technology might power an all-electric air taxi, capable of carrying four passengers through the busy city skyscapes of the future…

4
CLOSE

Your selection did not return any results. Please try another selection.

Load more

Register for news and stories

Our Alert service delivers the latest press releases, stories and regulatory news directly to your mailbox.