The all-electric plane, dubbed the "Spirit of Innovation," is the fastest of its kind in the world, after it reached a maximum speed of 387.4 mph in recent flight tests.
In a recent news release, the company, not to be mistaken for the car company owned by BMW, claimed that the Spirit of Innovation set three new world records. Rolls-Royce said its aircraft reached a top speed of 345.4 mph (555.9 km/h) over 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), beating the current record by 132 mph (213 k/h). The current record was broken in a subsequent 9.3-mile flight, during which it reached 330 mph (533 km/h).
There was more to the spirit of innovation. The current record was broken when Rolls-Royce reached 9,842.50 feet in 202 seconds. The company believes that it was the world's fastest all-electric vehicle when it reached a maximum speed of 387.4 mph.
The company's aircraft is powered by a 400 kilowatt electric powertrain and the most power-dense battery pack ever assembled in the industry. Half of the funding for the Accelerating the Electrification of Flight project comes from the UK government.
The World Air Sports Federation, also known as the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, is in charge of verification of world and continental records.
The performance of the aircraft is quiet impressive considering that the Spirit of Innovation made its first flight a little more than a month ago, but company CEO Warren East said that technological breakthrough like these are especially significant after the United Nation's COP26 talks.
The news release states that this is another milestone that will help makejet zero a reality and supports our ambitions to deliver the technology breakthrough society needs to decarbonise transport across air, land and sea.
The world has a private jet problem, which we all end up suffering for, considering the hundreds of private jets that descended upon COP26 in the ultimate showing of irony and hypocrisy. If the technology can be adapted for larger commercial aircraft, our planet will be better for it.
Changing the name to just "spirit" would be great. It is a mouthful.
