The Next Big Thing

Peter Garrison

Tuesday, December 30, 2014 at 09:00 PM ET

Verified

NASA's proposed "LEAPTech" demonstrator will use lots of electric motors to coax extra lift from a tiny wing.

Key Takeaways:

Electric motors offer significant new possibilities for aeronautical design due to their high efficiency and lower operating costs, despite the current challenge of heavy batteries compared to traditional fossil fuels.
Advanced concepts like "distributed propulsion" leverage the small size and reliability of electric motors to strategically place multiple propulsors, enabling radical aerodynamic innovations such as dramatically increased lift from smaller wings for takeoff and landing.
This integration of electric propulsion, distributed systems, and digital control is poised to usher in a new era of aeronautical design, potentially enabling novel aircraft types for applications like "On-Demand Mobility," though it also introduces complex engineering challenges.

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Electric motors open a candy box of new possibilities to jaded aeronautical designers and researchers.

As with real candy, however, there is a problem of weight gain. The best commercial batteries today are 30 times heavier than their equivalent in fossil fuels. The $80,000 Tesla Model S sedan uses 1,300 pounds of batteries to store about 87 horsepower-hours. These batteries take it some 200 miles — half the cruising range of a conventional car fueled with just 150 pounds of gasoline.