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ESAero-Tecnam X-57 Maxwell

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2 - deploy rotors

The X-57 project was publicly revealed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on 16 June 2016 in a keynote speech to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) at its Aviation 2016 exposition.[citation needed] The plane was named for Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell.[3]

NASA's first X-plane in over a decade, it is part of NASA's New Aviation Horizons initiative, which will also produce up to five larger-scale aircraft. The X-57 was built by the agency's SCEPTOR project, over a four-year development period at Armstrong Flight Research Center, California, with a first flight initially planned for 2017.[10][11][12]

In July 2017, Scaled Composites was modifying a first P2006T to the X-57 Mod II configuration by replacing the piston engines with Joby Aviation electric motors, to fly early in 2018. Mod III configuration will move the motors to the wingtips to increase propulsive efficiency. Mod IV configuration will see the installation of the Xperimental, LLC high aspect ratio wing with 12 smaller propellers along its leading edge to augment its takeoff and landing aerodynamic lift.[13]

The donor Tecnam P2006T was received in California in July 2016. In a December 2016 test, a battery cell was shorted and the overheating spread to other cells, requiring the packaging to be redesigned from eight to 16 modules with aluminum honeycomb separators. The Rotax 912s will be replaced by 60 kW (80 hp) electric motors for the Mod II. The Mod III weight target is 3,000 lb (1,400 kg) from the P2006T 2,700 lb (1,200 kg) and aims for 500% higher high-speed cruise efficiency as the higher wing loading will reduce cruise drag. The Mod IV with 12 propellers to take off and land at the same speeds as the P2006T is yet unfunded.[14]

In December 2017, the redesigned passively cooled battery module with 320 lithium-ion cell down from 640 passed testing. The experience helped Electric Power Systems develop a battery for the Bye Aerospace Sun Flyer 2 which made its first flight in April 2018. Joby Aviation delivered three cruise motors in 2017, and was assembling the final pair in June 2018. Motor acceptance testing involving an 80-hr. endurance test was to be simplified before vehicle integration. Contractor ES Aero will lead extensive ground-tests over months, culminating in a mission-like 30 minutes at full power test, before flying within 2019.[15]

By September 2018, the first Joby Aviation JM-X57 electric cruise motor were mounted with controllers, batteries and new cockpit displays at Scaled Composites in Mojave, before flight tests in mid-2019. Construction of the ESAero high aspect ratio, low drag composite wing was then almost finished, to fly the Mod 3 by mid-2020. - Wiki