NASA tested folding propellers for an electric plane

Although the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a wealth of experience in the development of aircraft technology, in the past 20 years it has for the first time carried out an independent aviation a project representing an all-electric X-57 aircraft. A few days ago, management specialists conducted a successful final test of the plane's folding propellers for the aircraft's lift motors.

This is reported by the Space Explorer edition.

For the X-57 project, the glider of the Italian Tecnam P2006T aircraft was involved, which is a light four-seater aircraft equipped with two engines. NASA employees replaced the two conventional engines used on the prototype with 14 electric motors. Two of them are cruising and have fixed blades. The remaining 12 blades can be folded. They are used only in take-off and landing modes, as well as for performing non-standard maneuvers.

The system of folding and returning to the initial state of the blades was successfully tested in a wind tunnel in a special NASA laboratory. After that, the aircraft can begin test flights.

Comments

[Daniil Konovalenko]

How many hours of flight is there enough charge?

[Invoce]

There are not only batteries, but also solar batteries -100%, possibly fuel-hydrogen cells, so that the flight of this glider aircraft, with a high wing quality, can last for a very long time, and for a huge distance

[Daniil Konovalenko]

For a very long time, and for a long distance

Then, a breakthrough?

[Daniil Konovalenko]

I noticed that they threw us minuses ..

[vVvAD]

Share with me: it will be a breakthrough when these 12 rotors still turn for vertical takeoff and landing

[APASUS]

Quote: Invoce

There are not only batteries, but also solar panels -100%, possibly fuel-hydrogen cells,

Americans write:

A single-seat aircraft receives its energy from accumulator batteries installed inside, which, according to some sources, occupy about 70% of the aircraft's volume. They can be charged both from the mains on the ground and from solar panels in flight. Without recharging on one charge, the aircraft can fly up to 160 km.

[Daniil Konovalenko]

Oh how! It will not be enough ... 160 km ... But still ..

[Nikolai Petrov]

NASA? Propellers? Is it really so degraded? You can't get to Mars with propellers. Although, at this time, Serdyukov quietly wiped away a tear.

[Tsoy]

NASA? Propellers? Is it really so degraded?

NASA has always been involved in more than just space. They are constantly building experimental aircraft. No wonder the word aeronautics in the title.

[Reviews]

Quote: Nikolai Petrov

NASA? Propellers? Is it really so degraded? You definitely can't get to Mars with propellers.

Why would all of NASA go to Mars? About half of their research concerns aviation, not astronautics. As, for example, at our TsAGI. And in the atmosphere, the screws will never disappear. Even in heavy aviation, they are now experiencing a renaissance in the form of TVVD.

[Blackmokona]

A helicopter to Mars was launched recently.

[Ross xnumx]

This is the first time I see that the emergence of American know-how caused such emotional comments that the moderators had to delete many messages at the very beginning ...
Did NASA rhyme with the Russian swearing ones?
It is necessary to rejoice that people's brains are working in the right direction, useful to society.

[My doctor]

Quote: ROSS 42

It is necessary to rejoice that people's brains are working in the right direction, useful to society.

Whose Brains?

[Ross xnumx]

Quote: MyVrach

Whose Brains?

It is not known exactly, it is likely that these brains are whose brains are needed. For example, here is the work of Russian brains:

 Show / Hide text

[stas Sv]

Well, well, they figured out how to change the pitch of the screw? And why on each half wing on 7 !!! engines? Where is the guarantee that some will not enter the "autovane"? There are a lot of questions ...

[Rzzz]

Quote: Stas Sv

how to change the pitch of the screw?

And what for to change it. There is also a synchronous electric motor. With turns, you can adjust the traction with very high precision. Moreover, there are so many motors independent of each other.

[stas Sv]

Well, yes, each wing has a computer, and a spare in the fuselage

[Rzzz]

Quote: Stas Sv

Well, yes, each wing has a computer, and a spare in the fuselage

Well, why not. After all, the 21st century is in the yard.
Now I have opened the parameters of one widespread computer (although 4-channel, for quadrics, but not fundamentally. Size 35 * 35 mm, weight 20 grams. Price less than 20 bucks.

[Narak-zempo]

Quote: Stas Sv

but how to change the pitch of the screw

No way. The speeds are not the ones for the VISH to use.

[keeper03]

And what do we have ?!

[Ross xnumx]

And we have:

Where - I will not say.
We have: MS-21 (approaching), "Baikal" (modernization of AN-2) and the famous SSJ-100 ... Everything is about to go into production (or has it already gone ... or gone ???)
So many "planischev" around -
The head went "running".
There are wings made of composites,
Here are new chassis for you.
But to go to the conveyor -
Bite your elbow!

[slipped]

Quote: keeper03

And what do we have ?!

From flying electric novelties - here is the prototype of the cycloopter - 60 kg. Flight tests are underway. They are going to transfer to a hybrid to increase the flight range.

An electric motor for the ultralight aircraft "Sigma-4" - 60 kW (80 hp) has been developed and is being tested.

[YOUR]

The whole world is slowly switching to electric traction. China and that by 2035 a complete rejection of purchases abroad of hydrocarbons and the transition in the automotive industry to electric motors and hydrogen engines. In the EU, the same for 2030. In Japan, cars with hybrid engines have been produced for about 10 years, and the production of internal combustion engines has practically ceased.
And we have ...

[RUSLAN]

What's the point of carrying 12 engines with a dead weight?

[lego2]

The point is simple - to test the concept.

[Rzzz]

The motors are light, they won't pull much. Why are there so many? And in order to place along the entire length of the wing, to blow the wing on takeoff, thereby significantly reducing the required strip length. An ultra-light vehicle with such propellers should take off from a couple of tens of meters.

[RUSLAN]

Well, it took off from a couple of tens of meters, and then all 12 engines are useless cargo! In aviation, there is a battle for each kg, and the article clearly states that they are needed only for takeoff!

[Rzzz]

Likewise, the main engine on an ordinary modern aircraft during horizontal flight in cruise mode gives about half of the nominal thrust, it is no longer required. So they also carry the "useless load", because the weight of the motor is always in direct proportion to its power.

[Rzzz]

I didn't have time to edit the previous comment, here's another argument.
With so many motors, we increase the efficiency of the wing, which means that the wing itself can be made smaller. And easier. And there will be less resistance to movement. That is, we lose on the weight of the motors, we gain on the weight of the wing.
And further. Hanging one heavy motor - you need a large and powerful mount. If you distribute the load on many small motors, then there may be a benefit in terms of the weight of the glands.

[Bobrick]

Only the motors themselves have frontal resistance, they worsen the airflow around the wing. the flow from the screw is swirling, and any vortex formation leads to large losses.

And the law of the square-cube also works here - the power of the motor drops much faster (depending on 3 engine sizes) of the propeller thrust (only on the propeller swept area), therefore 12 motors in total weigh much more than 2, but large ones. For the same reason, the resistance of the motors themselves will be higher and the load on the wing may be even greater in total.
Unless you can save a little on a distributed load, but then the heaviest engine must be placed closer to the fuselage so that the console can be made into an equal strength beam.

[Rzzz]

Quote: Bobrick

Only the motors themselves have frontal resistance, they worsen the airflow around the wing. the flow from the screw is swirling, and any vortex formation leads to large losses.

When flying horizontally, the propellers are folded and the motor is a very small nacelle under the wing, much smaller than a gas turbine engine of comparable power. Moreover, without any exhaust pipes and other holes - the aerodynamics can be made perfect.

Quote: Bobrick

motor power drops much faster

With electric motors, not everything is so simple. You can make a compact motor with a fairly high power. If all heat engines by the degree of forcing are tied to a resource and to efficiency, then this is not the case with electric motors.
In addition, electric motors of the correct design can easily take up to 200% load for a short time.

Quote: Bobrick

the heaviest engine must be placed closer to the fuselage so that the console can be made into an equal strength beam.

On the contrary, everything was correctly distributed. Is the lift generated on the wing? And the load? On one side, a half-wing of a heavy fuselage, on the other, a heavy engine.

[Bobrick]

When flying horizontally, the propellers are folded and the motor is a very small nacelle under the wing, much smaller than a gas turbine engine of comparable power. Moreover, without any exhaust pipes and other holes - the aerodynamics can be made perfect.

It still remains a body located under the wing, with its own resistance, and there are 12 of them and the trick is that no matter how you try, all other things being equal, the total drag will be higher.

With electric motors, not everything is so simple. You can make a compact motor with a fairly high power. If all heat engines by the degree of forcing are tied to a resource and to efficiency, then this is not the case with electric motors.
In addition, electric motors of the correct design can easily take up to 200% load for a short time.

Yes, that's right, that's just not all. The power-to-weight ratio of a small electric motor can really be improved, only this is achieved by increasing the speed on the output shaft, and very significant. And here is an ambush, or the screw will have to be reduced, which will lower both its efficiency and the efficiency of the entire system, which will again require an increase in size, or put a gearbox that will return everything to its original place and gobble up all the gain in weight.
The same applies to the third point.
Simply by increasing the current strength, it will no longer be possible to raise the power with a decrease - the mass of the windings will greatly increase, and the requirements for energy converters will also increase, which will begin to devour the same mass

On the contrary, everything was correctly distributed. Is the lift generated on the wing? And the load? On one side, a half-wing of a heavy fuselage, on the other, a heavy engine.

And now we need to add to this only the mismatch of the force vectors.
The motor pulls forward and down, the fuselage only down, and now there is a torque, which must be counted strictly from the fuselage. The engine is not a support.
And you also need to add the reaction force from the rotation of the screw, which acts on the entire console.
Plus the resistance of the case, plus many more loads.
Now consider that the permissible deviation of the thrust vector from the engine is no more than n-degrees, and now the wing needs to be calculated and designed not just for strength, but already for rigidity, which significantly increases the mass of the wing

Then you can add the evolution of the aircraft and it becomes quite sad. The engines at the tips become just a giant added mass.

[Alex20042004]

Such nonsense I can tell my son to the Gray Mare.

[Petr Vladimirovich]

The propeller is always foldable for moto-gliders of model aircraft manufacturers, and without any retainers. He turned on the engine, the blades straightened, pulled the model to a height. Move cut down, screw folded, catch yourself streams to your health. If there are flows not only ascending, but also dynamic, as in Koktebel, then three banks can fly at least half a day on one 2200 mAh account ...)))

[eklmn]

For the curious:
Takeoff of the B-52 in a strong crosswind. The landing gear of the aircraft can turn left-right by 20 degrees and therefore the aircraft can take off sideways!
https://youtu.be/A1lpoZDjt00?t=1