Plane with hybrid-electric engine takes to skies in test flight (VIDEO)

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Plane with hybrid-electric engine takes to skies in test flight (VIDEO)

While for decades aeronautics researchers have been working on ways to make flying safer, they’re now also trying to make air travel cleaner. A test flight of a hybrid-electric aircraft has been successfully completed in Britain.

The step forward – or rather upward – was the result of a joint project of engineers from Cambridge University, who have worked on the aircraft with funding support from Boeing. The small single-seat demonstrator plane is powered by a parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system, with the aircraft’s propeller driven both by an electric motor and petrol engine.

Another breakthrough the researchers managed to achieve is the airplane’s power charging system – a set of 16 large lithium-polymer cells located in special compartments built into the wings. The aircraft can recharge its batteries in flight; this is the first time such an advancement has been achieved.

“Although hybrid cars have been available for more than a decade, what’s been holding back the development of hybrid or fully-electric aircraft until now is battery technology,” Paul Robertson of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering said. Robertson, who led the project, explained that a hybrid aircraft has become viable thanks to improved batteries, which weigh less and have more energy capacity…..more here

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Plane with hybrid-electric engine takes to skies in test flight (VIDEO)