The British industrial technology company announced plans to fly an in-development electric airplane over Great Britain in 2020, reaching a top speed of at least 480 kilometers per hour (300 miles per hour).
Not only would this shatter the current record for an all-electric plane — 337 KPH (210 MPH) — but it could also lead to the “electrification” of air travel across the globe.
According to Rolls Royce’s announcement, the electric airplane is part of a UK government-funded initiative called ACCEL, which is short for “Accelerating the Electrification of Flight.”
The craft will feature three high-power-density electric motors designed to produce more than 500 horsepower, and its all-electric powertrain will reportedly deliver 90 percent energy efficiency.
The battery pack powering the craft will include 6,000 cells. That’ll make it the most energy-dense pack ever created for an aircraft, according to Rolls Royce, and it could power a nonstop flight from London to Paris — though there’s no word about what speed it could maintain.
“This plane will be powered by a state-of-the-art electrical system and the most powerful battery ever built for flight,” Matheu Parr, ACCEL Project Manager for Rolls-Royce, said in the announcement. “In the year ahead, we’re going to demonstrate its abilities in demanding test environments before going for gold in 2020 from a landing strip on the Welsh coastline.”