NASA officials report they are concluding their experiments with the agency’s X-57 Maxwell all-electric aircraft project by the end of September 2023.
And while the airplane never flew, agency officials are still celebrating the lessons learned.
“NASA’s goal is to drive innovation through groundbreaking research and technology development. The X-57 project team has done just that by providing foundational information to (the) industry through lessons learned, and we’re seeing the benefits borne out by American commercial aviation companies that are aiming to change the way we fly,” said Brad Flick, director of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, where the X-57 aircraft was developed. “I’m incredibly proud of their tenacity and ingenuity as they led the way in advancing electrified propulsion. The future of electrified propulsion is possible because of their contributions.”
NASA officials explained that a safe flight was not possible for the prototype as the project “encountered several challenges, including mechanical issues late into its lifecycle and a lack of availability of critical components required to develop experimental hardware. Given the approaching planned end of aircraft operations, the timeline would not allow the team to reach acceptable flight conditions.”
Although most of the X-57’s development will complete by September 2023, the team will officially conclude its work several months afterward with additional technical publications, NASA officials noted.
The primary goal of the X-57 project was to provide knowledge about the aircraft’s electric-propulsion-focused design and airworthiness process with regulators.
“This information has already impacted and will continue to impact the development of advanced certification approaches for electric propulsion in emerging electric aircraft markets,” officials said in a press release. “The objective was not to develop a prototype, but to develop a test platform for technologies and design methods. And the team did just that, documenting and publishing the technology gaps and their solutions as they were discovered so that industry stakeholders could take advantage of those lessons as soon as possible.”
“They did things that had never been done before, and that’s never easy,” Flick said. “While we prepare to finish this project later this year, I see a long list of achievements to celebrate and an industry that’s better today because of their work.”
The aircraft was built by modifying a Tecnam P2006T to be powered by an electric propulsion system. Using an existing aircraft design allowed the team to compare their data to that of a baseline model powered by traditional combustion engines, NASA officials explained.
Successes of X-57
Early in the project, the X-57 team members found they would need significant developments in battery technology. The lithium-ion batteries installed on the aircraft warm up as they discharge energy and too much warming could result in overheating.
They worked with Electric Power Systems in North Logan, Utah, to address this issue. Engineers demonstrated that the new battery system design would stay within acceptable, safe limits while powering the aircraft.
The design of the cruise motor controllers is another success of the X-57 project, according to NASA officials. These controllers convert energy stored in the aircraft’s lithium-ion batteries to power its motors, which drive its propellers.
The controllers use silicon carbide transistors to deliver 98% efficiency intended for high power takeoff and cruise, meaning they do not generate excessive heat and can be cooled off by the air flowing through the motor.
The NASA team designed inverters to meet demanding mass and thermal requirements and are sharing these designs in technical publications so that the aviation industry can use them as a launchpad for new aircraft products, NASA officials stated. Most recently, the cruise motor controllers went through successful thermal testing, they noted.
The aircraft reached another milestone with the installation of two 400-pound lithium-ion battery packs in its cabin, followed by successful tests of its motors spinning off battery power. The motors had previously spun, but were drawing energy from either the test facility, or from the batteries when they were sitting outside of the aircraft. To reach this point, the X-57 project team repeatedly tested the batteries to ensure they could safely power the aircraft, and designed custom, lightweight cases to keep those batteries secure.
During the integration phase the team encountered electromagnetic interference that affected the operation of onboard systems and required a solution. After extensive research the team designed, developed, and installed filters that resolved the issue. The approach will be added to the technical papers and shared with industry and the electric propulsion community, NASA officials said.
Want to dig deep into the technical aspects? You can at NASA.gov/Aeroresearch/X-57/Technical/index.html
Get out and fly the dam thing. Spent all the money building it, and now there will be no actual flight data. It makes no sense to me..
If it had 2, 75 kW motors, equivalent to the 100 HP Rotax engines, and the 2, 400 lb batteries they had, which had about 40 Kwhrs capacity, It had no legal reserve, meaning ‘0’ flight time capability.
With a gross weight of 2,600 lb, the 2, 400 lb batteries probably put it at gross with a light-weight pilot.
They also found that the motors had the wrong bearings. It should have had deep groove ball bearings, like turbine engines have, to tolerate the thrust loads.
During the integration phase the team encountered electromagnetic interference that affected the operation of onboard systems and required a solution. After extensive research the team designed, developed, and installed filters that resolved the issue
I’m sure the guys in San Carlos and their production crew in Marina are quite interested in those filters.
My on going questions are more mundane, which insurance companies are going to underwrite these aircraft once they actually become available ?
There are standards for the type of fowl that are thrown into the intake of commercial jets engine during certification tests. Are there standards for the type of birds the electron boys can hit before the emergency descent sub routine is automatically triggered ?
The type of person who will be going along for the ride of the man size quadcopters will be people of some means. It has been already determined, decades ago, when that type of person flies west their heirs will hire people to go into great detail to find out whose fault their loved ones untimely demise was responsible.
Fwiw, as I understand it, Toyota has allocated quite a bit more than 87. With that much you can barely buy 43 houses in San Carlos.
Well you know in this modern woke society everybody gets a trophy, even the losers.
Reason is Your companion, Mr, Francis D Koester.
NASA putting lipstick on a pig that was doomed to fail from the start. Energy density is the killer of all electric aircraft, the reason their proponents try claiming it is all really meant to save the planet from the “boiling oceans”, as that climate expert and inventor of the Internet, Al (The Kiss & Mr. Gravitas) Gore likes to warn us. $87 MILLION in our hard-earned tax dollars were flushed into this project. Our nation is $32T in debt, we have record-high inflation, many people are struggling to survive (especially in GA), and our government throws away OUR money because it never faces personal consequences for its bad decisions. I say take the $87m from the pensions of NASA managers. If battery aircraft are such a great thing, let the private sector pay for them with zero involvement from government.
The program is ending because the money is running out. The budget had deadlines, and they are here. The failure here is of the NASA leadership not committing enough resources to the project. The successes are all brought about by a great team working within a very small box.
They’re definitely putting a positive spin on this “successful failure”.
Building a plane and not flying it, is like building a boat and not putting it in water! They should be ashamed of themselves. And by the way told call it a success.
How much did this cost? Choice of Tecnam was a mistake. The “secret sauce” of electric is the software and Pipistrel is leading the industry. America is falling behind and NASA should be ashamed for not being able to conduct at least a few test flights. FAA is likewise being incompetent for dragging their feet on electric light sport approval