NASA took delivery this week of a Tecnam P2006T, which will undergo transformation into an electric-propulsion testbed called the X-57 Maxwell. The Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology and Operations Research (SCEPTOR) project, the latest in NASA’s X-plane experiments, seeks to develop technologies to make flying quieter, cheaper and emissions-free. Sean Clarke, one of the leaders of the X-57 project out of NASA Armstrong in California, was among the presenters during a joint news conference with Tecnam during AirVenture 2016. Clarke told AVweb during the event that the test aircraft will undergo a series of modifications and be ready to fly in early 2018. Experiments with electric motors mounted on the wingtips will follow, he said. Future plans are to research flight characteristics with smaller inboard electric motors. The project was launched with $15 million of funding over three years.
From a research standpoint, electric motors are highly efficient regardless of size, and they can be installed, removed and rearranged in various configurations with ease, said Mark Moore, a SCEPTOR project leader. “It gives us incredible flexibility,” he said. While the aircraft sent to NASA is strictly for research, Tecnam says the project’s findings will benefit industry in the future. “Even though this aircraft will never be a production article, Tecnam is proud to be a part of expanding our base of knowledge in this new paradigm in flight,” said Shannon Yeager, director of Tecnam U.S. “The entire aircraft manufacturing community will benefit from the return of the X-planes and the new information gained with the X-57.”
