The sky’s the limit for Rolls-Royce
BRITISH luxury car manufacturing company Rolls-Royce has been working on a battery-powered airplane for several years.
Now it has set a record as the world’s fastest fully electric aircraft. The plane, called Spirit of Innovation, reached a top speed of 623km/h – that’s 213km/h faster than the previous record set in 2017.
The company says it also broke the existing 3 000m climb record by 60 seconds, recording a time of 202 seconds.
However, the records must still be validated by the World Air Sports Federation.
Experts say electric planes could help curb pollution because most conventional planes burn fuel, which causes emissions that contribute to global warming.
Electric planes are powered by dense battery packs instead of fuel.
It works by powering the engine that makes the propeller turn. The problem is that for the battery to provide enough power for this, it’s usually very heavy which slows down the plane.
Rolls-Royce now aims
