Airbus teams up with Rolls-Royce and Siemens to develop electric aircraft

Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens announced on Monday that they would be combining forces to develop technology required to manufacture electrically-powered aeroplanes.

The electric jet would see the existing jet engine of an Airbus BAE 146 replaced with a fan powered by an onboard generator in the fuselage of the aircraft.

Paul Stein, Rolls-Royce's chief technology officer, said, "Aviation is the last frontier of the electrification of transport. It could lead to a step change in the way we fly with greater efficiency and less noise."

In addition to the fan, the demonstration unit, which the trio set an ambitious goal of making airborne by 2020, would also contain batteries, making it a hybrid aircraft which the companies hoped would be capable of flying short-haul routes of roughly one hour within a generation.

Mark Cousin, head of flight demonstration at Airbus, said that successful development of an electric aircraft would reduce global fuel consumption by as much as 10% per year and could potentially lead to cheaper airfares.

The jets, which would also utilise a gas turbine to generate electricity, which was then directed towards the aircraft's propellers, would "significantly" cut down the amount of noise created by the plane.

"Quieter aircraft could move runways much closer to city centres," Stein said.

"Flying on electric aircraft could be the norm for travel between cities, even replacing rail - you do not need to lay out railway tracks fanning out from train stations for these aircraft."

The aeroplane's batteries would only provide power when required, such as during take-off, creating a more efficient vehicle overall.

Moving to electric aircraft would also assist the aviation industry in meeting its EU targets for 2050 of a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions, a 90% decrease in NOx and a 75% drop in noise.

The technology was expected to begin operating on very short-haul flights, such as London to Paris, with a long-term goal of adapting the technology to extend to long-haul flights.