The NASA X-57 Maxwell was an experimental aircraft developed by NASA, intended to demonstrate technology to reduce fuel use, emissions, and noise. The first flight of the X-57 was scheduled to take place in 2023, but the program was cancelled due to problems with the propulsion system. The experiment involved replacing the wings on a twin-engined Italian-built Tecnam P2006T (a conventional four-seater light aircraft) with distributed electric propulsion (DEP) wings, each containing electrically driven propellers. Test flights were initially planned to commence in 2017. The first test phase used an 18-engine truck-mounted wing. The second phase installed the cruise propellers and motors on a standard P2006T for ground- and flight-test experience. Phase 3 tests were to involve the high-lift DEP wing and demonstrate increased high-speed cruise efficiency. The leading-edge nacelles would be fitted, but the high-lift propellers, motors and controllers would not be installed. Phase 4 was to add the DEP motors and folding propellers to demonstrate lift-augmentation. The Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology (LEAPTech) project is a NASA project developing an experimental electric aircraft technology involving many small electric motors driving individual small propellers distributed along the edge of each aircraft wing. To optimize performance, each motor can be operated independently at different speeds, decreasing reliance on fossil fuels, improving aircraft performance and ride quality, and reducing aircraft noise. The X-57 project was publicly revealed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on 17 June 2016 in a keynote speech to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) at its Aviation 2016 exposition. The plane was named for Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. 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. 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, with plans 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. Modified from a Tecnam P2006T, the X-57 would have been an electric aircraft, with 14 electric motors driving propellers mounted on the wing leading edges. All 14 electric motors would be used during takeoff and landing, with only the outer two used during cruise. The additional airflow over the wings created by the additional motors generates greater lift, allowing for a narrower wing. The aircraft would have seated two. It would have had a range of 100 mi (160 km) and a maximum flight time of approximately one hour. The X-57's designers hoped to reduce by five-fold the energy necessary to fly a light aircraft at 175 mph (282 km/h; 152 kn), including a threefold reduction due to switching from piston engines to battery-electric. For more details, click here.
