Nasa unveils first electric plane X-57

The plane is among the proud experiments Nasa has performed

Edwards Air Force Base, Nov. 9: Nasa, most prominent for its many Florida-launched exploits into space, showcased an early version of its first all-electric experimental aircraft, the X-57 ‘Maxwell’, at its lesserknown aeronautics lab in the California desert.

Adapted from a Italianmade Tecnam P2006T twin-engine propeller plane, the X-57 has been under development since 2015 and remains at least a year away from its first test flight in the skies over

Edward Air Force Base. But after attaching the two largest of 14 electric motors that will ultimately propel the plane — powered by specially designed lithium ion batteries — Nasa deemed the Maxwell ready for its first public preview.

Nasa also showed off a newly built simulator that allows engineers, and pilots, to get the feel of what it will be like to manoeuvre the finished version of the X-57 in flight, even as the plane remains under development. The Maxwell is the latest in a proud line of experimental aircraft the Nasa has developed over many decades for many purposes, including the bullet-shaped Bell X-1 that first broke the sound barrier and the X-15 rocket plane flown by Neil

Armstrong before he joined the Apollo moon team. The Maxwell will be the agency’s first crewed X-plane to be developed in two decades.

While private companies have been developing allelectric planes and hovercraft for years, Nasa’s X-57 venture is aimed at designing and proving technology according to standards that commercial manufacturers can adapt for government certification.

Those will include standards for airworthiness and safety.