In what could very well be the aircraft industry’s biggest electrification effort to date, Airbus, Siemens, and Roll-Royce are embarking on a partnership that could lead to the world’s first electric airplane. The project is called the “E-Fan X,” and it’s essentially a BAe 146 plane that’s being tested to run on proprietary electric motor technology.

It’s one thing to develop electrification technology to power a car. It’s another thing entirely to develop electric propulsion technology for a large commercial aircraft. This is next level stuff. It’s also complicated beyond our imaginations.

It’s interesting to note that both Airbus and Siemens have actually produced different versions of all-electric aircrafts. Airbus had the E-Fan, which was the first electric plane to successfully fly across the English Channel in 2014. For its part, Siemens’ Extra 330LE prototype electric aerobatic plane set a new top speed record for an electric plane when it hit 211 mph back in April 2017. Then there’s Rolls-Royce. We may know it in our line of work as the creator of some of the world’s most luxurious vehicles, but it’s also a powerhouse in the aviation industry with a reputation for developing some of the best jet engines in the world.

Knowing this makes it easy to understand why the three companies teamed up on a project as ambitious as this one. As part of the three-team collaboration, each company will focus on a specific aspect of the project. Siemens will take the lead in developing the two-megawatt electric motors and their power electronic control unit. It’ll also be responsible for developing the inverter, AC/DC converter, and power distribution system. For its part, Rolls-Royce will handle the development of the E-Fan X’s turbo-shaft engine, two-megawatt generator, and power electronics. As for Airbus, it’s going to be responsible for integrating the contributions of Siemens and Rolls-Royce. That’s on top of creating the control architecture of the hybrid-electric propulsion system and batteries, and its integration with flight controls.

There’s no timetable yet on when the E-Fan X is going to take flight, but it is exciting to know that three of the most important companies in the world of aviation are pooling their resources together to turn something that was supposed to be impossible into reality. Here’s to hoping then that the project is successful.

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