Rolls-Royce All Electric Race Plane Makes First Flight

The all-electric Rolls-Royce “Spirit of Innovation” ACCEL made its first flight this week in preparation for a record break.

Some cars and planes manage to appear quickly even when stationary. The fully electric Rolls-Royce prototype is certainly one of them. However, the airframe is not the work of Rolls-Royce itself. The base aircraft here is the Sharp Nemesis NXT. At the Reno Air Races, the planes that cross the 400 mph mark in qualifying are typically Unlimited Class pilots. This Sport-class experimental project did exactly that, with a six-cylinder Lycoming TIO-540!

Motorsports and world record attempts are perceived by many as useless and useless. But with the right rules, such disciplines can bring with them very useful innovation steps. Taking designs to new extremes can reveal flaws and flaws that ultimately benefit our cars – and airplanes -. This is the path that the Rolls-Royce engine manufacturer has taken with its all-electric aircraft test bed.

The name “Spirit of Innovation” is a wink and a nod to the “Spirit of Ecstasy”. This is the name of the statuette above the radiator of Rolls-Royce cars. A company that produces cars today is obviously not the same as a manufacturer of aircraft engines. But this figure is certainly part of the Rolls-Royce legacy, and this all-electric plane is no less attractive!

The electric aircraft’s first flight took place at MoD Boscombe Down Airport (EGDM), formerly RAF Boscombe Down. The site has played a role in many British aviation premieres, a fact that Rolls-Royce is quick to mention. But the testing program is slow and measured. The flight lasted only 15 minutes, with the plane taking off at 2:56 p.m. local time on Wednesday, September 15. The landing gear of the plane remained extended everywhere.

We’ve already seen Rolls-Royce’s involvement with Vertical Aerospace, an eVTOL project with the support of Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines. But the Spirit of Innovation could play a more direct role in another project. In collaboration with Widerøe and Tecnam, Rolls-Royce is working on an all-electric, twin-engine, 9-seater aircraft. Called the Tecnam P-Volt, it will use the airframe of the P-2012 Traveler aircraft. Coincidentally (?) This plane normally uses two Lycoming TIO-540 engines!

Electric aviation still has a lot to prove. There are many conventional and eVTOL projects, with varying amounts of funding. However, extending existing efforts to multi-passenger projects has yet to bear fruit. This all-electric Rolls-Royce test bench is part of the ACCEL program, in short “Accelerating the Electrification of Flight”. Hopefully we will see more competitive and record projects, pushing innovation further.