Fastest Electric Plane in the World

Rolls-Royce have long been famous for their deluxe tank-like vehicles, and for powering many of the passenger planes flying today, but their announcement of a speed record attempt for an electrically powered plane caught my eye. It’s not the first electric plane, but it could be the most ambitious to date.

The Rolls-Royce Spirit of Innovation broke the speed record for an all-electric plane, hitting a top speed of 623km/h (387.4mph). On 16 November 2021, the aircraft reached a top speed of 555.9 km/h (345.4 mph) over 3 kilometres, smashing the existing record by 213.04 km/h (132mph). In other flights the plane broke two more records with a speed of 532.1km/h (330mph) over 15 kilometres and climbing to an altitude of 3,000 metres in just 202 seconds.

The plane can only fly for 7 or 8 minutes before landing on reserve power. It’s apparently quite difficult to fly due to it being optimised mainly for speed, but it’s certainly an eye catching plane. Watch Rolls-Royce’s video about the plane below.

For an amazing deep dive on the tech behind this feat, check out the New Mind YouTube channel‘s breakdown of this plane.