Electric aircraft explorations unveiled by EADS

Aiming towards low-emissions and non-fossil fuel technologies, the company is working on three collaborative projects that use electric motors to propel aircraft both in the air and on the ground.

EADS and French aerospace manufacturer Aero Composites Saintonge (ACS) have worked together to produce a fully-electric training aircraft called E-Fan, propelled by two electric motors running ducted fans mounted on the fuselage. Powered by batteries housed in the wings, the aircraft also has electric motors in the landing gear to power taxiing and also to help provide acceleration during take-off.

This is something which is of great interest to civil aviation companies, as Airbus UK R&D chief Colin Sirett explained at the recent Engineer conference. As an airliner can travel around 200,000km on the ground during its lifetime, and jet engines are at their least efficient at ground level — some estimates say that this can use 5 million litres of fuel per aircraft per year.