NASA’s ten-engine battery powered electric plane has completed its successful transition test. The aircraft can take off like a helicopter and can fly like a proper aircraft. The revolutionary concept plane has been named Greased Lightning or GL-10, and it recently executed a successful transition from hover to wing-borne flight.
Engineers at NASA believe that the ten-engine aircraft has multiple uses. It can be used for small package delivery in areas which cannot accommodate conventional landing methods of an aircraft. GL-10’s vertical take-off and landing capacity make it a handy customer in such scenarios. Moreover, the helicopter-like aircraft can also be used for agriculture mapping, and long endurance surveillance, if and when required. A very crucial feature of the Greased Lightning is that it’s almost completely silent.
The plane weighs around 28.1 kilograms and sports a wingspan of about 3.05 meters. The aircraft runs on ten electric motors in total. Eight of these electric motors are attached on the wings of the aircraft while two are affixed on its tail. So far, the aircraft has transitioned from hover to wing-borne, and then back to hover mode, on five flights.
NASA’s second goal is to establish the aero dynamical supremacy of this concept aircraft, against a helicopter while cruising. But one of the most striking features of the concept plane is its quiet take-off and landing. The current prototype makes less noise than a regular gas powered lawn mower.
(Featured Image Credits: industrytap.com)