Tonight, I attended the Cobham Lecture hosted by The Honourable Company of Air Pilots titled “Towards Zero-Emission Flight & the Fastest Electric-Powered Aircraft”, and presented by Matheu Parr, Senior Programme Manager, and Chris Hadlow, Chief Pilot, at Rolls-Royce plc.
Matheu Parr is the Customer Business Director for Rolls-Royce Electrical, a newly formed business within Rolls-Royce group focussed upon delivery of complete electrical propulsion systems to the general aerospace market such as Urban Air Mobility & Commuter aircraft. Matheu is also leading this highly specialised charge to build the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft. With a technical background in electrical engineering as well as project management, he is responsible for the delivery of this high performance zero-emissions plane.
Matheu began his talk by explaining how electrification is an inescapable trend across aerospace markets as we all seek cleaner, more sustainable power. The ACCEL project is intended to pioneer this third wave of aviation through a highly specialised goal of building the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft. ACCEL will help us bring forward the adoption of zero-emission flight, while also looking to stimulate the development of an electric aircraft supply chain, and of course make a run for the record books with a target speed of 300+ mph.
He explained how the aircraft they had built to challenge the current speed record of 220 mph called “Spirit of Innovation” was inspired by Rolls Royce’s participation in building engines for the Snider Trophy 100 years ago which ultimately lead to the development of the Spitfire.
Chris began his talk by outlining his RAF flying career as a
Jaguar pilot on No 6 Squadron and whilst in the RAF he also completed a tour as
an instructor on the Hawk, as well as an exchange tour on the Alphajet in
France. In 2006 Chris joined British
Airways flying A320s until a year later when an opportunity came up to fly the
Gulfstream 450 for Rolls-Royce which he has been doing ever since. Chris’
latest role sees him as Project Pilot for Future Programmes where he will be
involved in a significant number of the projects that Rolls-Royce are pursuing
whilst pioneering electric and hybrid electric propulsion. He explained how
critical weight was in the aircraft design and that included his own weight as
the pilot.
The lecture was followed a question and answer session led by the Nick Goodwyn, Master, and Paul Tacon, Clerk of the Air Pilots Company. My thanks go to Master and Clerk, and both presenters for a fascinating lecture on the future of electric powered aircraft.
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