Rolls-Royce Plans To Break Electric Aircraft Speed Record In 2020 Written 3 January 2019

Aviation Week reports that Rolls-Royce revealed more details about a “light aircraft currently under development that it hopes will break the electric flight speed record in 2020.” The Accelerating the Electrification of Flight (Accel) project “builds on the company’s partnership with high-power motor developer YASA, start-up Electroflight and the UK’s Aviation Technology Institute announced at last year’s Farnborough Airshow.” Accel plans to “speed past the previous record of 210 mph (337.5km/h) set by Siemen’s electric-powered Extra 330LE aerobatic aircraft, set in March 2017, and achieve speeds of 300+mph.” Details released by Rolls-Royce “reveal the single-seat Accel monoplane with a wingspan of 24 ft (7.32m), will use a densely-packed 6,000 cell battery system capable of delivering 750kW of power.” The batteries power “three lightweight YASA 750R motors which Rolls-Royce says will deliver the equivalent of 500hp to the propeller.”
More Info (Aviation Week)