World's Fastest All-Electric Vehicle--345 mph!

[Snake45]

https://simpleflying.com/rolls-royces-electric-plane-breaks-the-world-speed-record/

[cobraman]

It sure reminds me of a P 51.

[Keavdog]

Sleek looking airplane.  They blew the old record out of the water!  Curious about the battery tech and how the address weight.  Pretty cool  - thanks for posting.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Pretty impressive for battery power, but I'm more interested in the range...which determines any vehicle's overall practicality.

And, um...the Rolls Royce IC-powered Supermarine S6b flew 407 MPH way back in 1931, so these guys have a little catching up to do.   

[Joe Handley]

It’s only the second fastest EV in the world, the Team Vesco Little Giant #444 broke 353mph last year using Tesla motors and Prismatic Lithium packs in a streamlined that has been racing since 1958 and recharging using a trailer covered in solar panels to generate electricity.  They couldn’t do the back up run within 60 min for an international record, but do hold the US record right now.

https://www.pmw-magazine.com/news/electric-motorsport/team-vesco-ups-the-ante-for-electric-land-speed-records.html

[deuces wild]

Garlits has an electric dragster that does??... 4's in the 1/4... Sorry I don't know how to post the video..??

[Ace-Garageguy]

Compare the shape of the fuselage of this pre-computer, pre-CFD, etc. 1931  Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 to the shape of the fuselage of the electric wonder. Notice any similarity?   

NOTE: On 23 October 1934, Francesco Agello piloted the M.C.72 at an average speed of 709.207 km/h (440.681 mph) over three passes. This record remains (as of 2019) the highest speed ever attained by a piston-engined seaplane. After this, the M.C.72 was never flown again.

                                                                                                                              

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy

[Joe Handley]

11 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Compare the shape of the fuselage of this pre-computer, pre-CFD, etc. 1931  Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 to the shape of the fuselage of the electric wonder. Notice any similarity?   

NOTE: On 23 October 1934, Francesco Agello piloted the M.C.72 at an average speed of 709.207 km/h (440.681 mph) over three passes. This record remains (as of 2019) the highest speed ever attained by a piston-engined seaplane. After this, the M.C.72 was never flown again.

                                                                                                                              

 

Well, that does go to show how good the designer(s) of that plane were that 88 years later, the shape it still so close up that they’re just tweaking it vs a wholesale change.

[Richard Bartrop]

The rules of aerodynamics were something people figured out pretty early, 

What I find interesting about the Vesco LIttle Giant is how well they did with just stock motors in a 60 year old racer.   I'm wondering if with more development and a more aerodynamic shape, electrics have a shot at the absolute wheel driven record?

[Joe Handley]

3 hours ago, Richard Bartrop said:

The rules of aerodynamics were something people figured out pretty early, 

What I find interesting about the Vesco LIttle Giant is how well they did with just stock motors in a 60 year old racer.   I'm wondering if with more development and a more aerodynamic shape, electrics have a shot at the absolute wheel driven record?

I think it might come down to developing a drivetrain that will fit in between the motor and drive wheels of a streamliner AND handle the abuse as well as batteries that can handle the discharge needed for this type of racing. The battery part will probably be no different than if you were to do this with an R/C car, just larger.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Joe Handley

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, Richard Bartrop said:

...I'm wondering if with more development and a more aerodynamic shape, electrics have a shot at the absolute wheel driven record?

I wouldn't be surprised, actually. Electric drive systems lend themselves nicely to high-torque output over a relatively short time period, with no relatively huge drag-inducers like air intakes for engine induction and cooling.

At LSR speeds, aerodynamic drag is enemy number one.

I don't know what the rules are regarding two-way runs for electric LSR records, but if a fully charged battery pack could be quickly swapped (legally) for the return, the numbers just might work really well.

EDIT: Electricity has the potential to power faster aircraft record-breakers too...but the problem for a practical electric aircraft, much like that for cars, is range on a charge.

A Cirrus SR22, for instance, has a maximum range of 1150+ nautical miles, a maximum cruising speed of 210MPH, and a useful load of 1300+ pounds. Probably not quite there yet for an electric...

Edited January 26, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
CLARITY and ACCURACY

[Richard Bartrop]

The electric Hummer is supposed to be good for 3 second 0 to 60 times, and this is a vehicle just shy of five tons.  Imagine the possibilities if you put those motors in something lighter.

[Ace-Garageguy]

8 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said:

The electric Hummer is supposed to be good for 3 second 0 to 60 times, and this is a vehicle just shy of five tons.  Imagine the possibilities if you put those motors in something lighter.

Couple real world problems though.

Hummer's claimed range is 350 miles, but the 800V recharging stations that can almost fill the thing in 30 minutes just aren't on every corner.

Other thing is how much of that total vehicle weight is batteries? Lead zeppelins don't fly all that well.   

[Richard Bartrop]

All very true but I'm thinking more for competitions where you don't have to worry about range so much.

[Joe Handley]

3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I wouldn't be surprised, actually. Electric drive systems lend themselves nicely to high-torque output over a relatively short time period, with no relatively huge drag-inducers like air intakes for engine induction and cooling.

At LSR speeds, aerodynamic drag is enemy number one.

I don't know what the rules are regarding two-way runs for electric LSR records, but if a fully charged battery pack could be quickly swapped (legally) for the return, the numbers just might work really well.

EDIT: Electricity has the potential to power faster aircraft record-breakers too...but the problem for a practical electric aircraft, much like that for cars, is range on a charge.

A Cirrus SR22, for instance, has a maximum range of 1150+ nautical miles, a maximum cruising speed of 210MPH, and a useful load of 1300+ pounds. Probably not quite there yet for an electric...

I think the FIA rule on turn around time is why the Little Giant doesn’t have the world record, just the US, they weren’t able to recharge it fast enough and don’t know if it was set up to hot swap the packs quick enough either.  That will probably be a major thing to look at if building a streamliner that is electric only.

[Richard Bartrop]

I think the turn around time has to be an hour.  but if there are quick chargers that can do the job in 30 minutes, then they should be good if they take along the right equipment.

[Joe Handley]

There’s a YouTube channel called Scarf and Goggles that covers a lot of older, international land speed efforts that I’ve watched a lot of recently, I may be getting some of of the older race cars he’s talked about mixed up with the Vesco EV effort when it comes to the FIA records.

[1930fordpickup]

On 1/23/2022 at 12:38 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Compare the shape of the fuselage of this pre-computer, pre-CFD, etc. 1931  Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 to the shape of the fuselage of the electric wonder. Notice any similarity?   

NOTE: On 23 October 1934, Francesco Agello piloted the M.C.72 at an average speed of 709.207 km/h (440.681 mph) over three passes. This record remains (as of 2019) the highest speed ever attained by a piston-engined seaplane. After this, the M.C.72 was never flown again.

                                                                                                                              

How fast would have this plane been without the pontoons holding it back?  Been in a few float ( Beaver's and an Otter)planes in Canada fishing and they are great. We were not going  that fast. LOL 

[Ace-Garageguy]

11 hours ago, 1930fordpickup said:

How fast would have this plane been without the pontoons holding it back?  

Most likely considerably faster.

Though a great deal of research was done in wind tunnels and water tanks to reduce float drag in the air and while taxiing up through 1931, when the Schneider trophy was permanently won by England that year, much of that research stopped. "Land planes" shortly afterwards went on to set higher speed records, in large part because they didn't have huge draggy floats to slow them down.

Again, drag is the most important single factor in going really fast. Drag increases proportional to the square of speed, so when you go twice as fast, for example, you have to overcome 4 times as much drag. Three times as fast, nine times the drag, etc.

But the power to overcome that drag varies with the cube of speed...which essentially means that to go a little faster, you need a LOT more power.   (NOTE: The relationships above are perhaps overly simplified, but in general concept, they're close enough for our purposes here.)

Looked at another way, this is a large part of the reason Danny Thompson's twin-engined LSR car was significantly faster than his father Mickey's four-engined car...Danny's car had vastly reduced drag because of a much smaller package. (NOTE: Mickey Thompson realized this, as he initially built the skinny two-engined car Danny would drive to a record in 2018...in 1968.)

And this is one big reason you don't currently see prop-planes going faster than the speed of sound. The propeller disc, besides providing thrust, also creates massive drag...not to mention the other insanely complex aerodynamics going on with a prop at those speeds.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0031b.shtml

Edited January 27, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

[1930fordpickup]

Thank you Bill.