How about this for a radical way of powering light aircraft – 18 electric motors, each with its own propeller, mounted very close to the front of the wing? It’s the latest project from US space agency NASA and it’s hoped that a Tecnam light aircraft fitted with the system will fly within the next two years.
At the moment, the 18-engine wing is an experimental demonstrator. It’s called the ‘Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology’ (LEAPTech) and tests the idea that closer propulsion-airframe integration will deliver improved efficiency and safety, and environmental and economic benefits.
Over the next few months, NASA researchers will perform ground tests of a 31-foot-span, carbon composite wing section with 18 electric motors powered by lithium batteries.
The experimental wing, called the Hybrid-Electric Integrated Systems Testbed (HEIST), is mounted on a specially modified truck. Testing on the mobile ground rig assembly will provide data and reduce the risk when its comes to flying the beast. The HEIST wing will be driven on the truck at speeds up to 70 miles per hour across a dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base.
The LEAPTech project began in 2014 when researchers from NASA Langley Research Centre and Armstrong partnered with two California companies, Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) in Pismo Beach and Joby Aviation in Santa Cruz. ESAero is the prime contractor for HEIST responsible for system integration and instrumentation, while Joby is responsible for design and manufacture of the electric motors, propellers, and carbon fibre wing section.
Researchers hope to fly a piloted aircraft within the next couple years after removing the wings and engines from an Italian-built Tecnam P2006T and replacing them with an improved version of the LEAPTech wing and motors. Using an existing airframe will allow engineers to compare the performance of the test aircraft with the original P2006T.
LEAPTech is a key element of NASA’s plan to help a significant portion of the aircraft industry transition to electrical propulsion.
According to Mark Moore, an aerodynamicist at Langley, “LEAPTech has the potential to achieve transformational capabilities in the near-term for general aviation aircraft, as well as for transport aircraft in the longer-term.”