Extra 330Ls have a long nose, usually cowling a Lycoming IO-540 or -580. The 330 EL, though, houses 14 battery packs of 18.6 kilowatt-hours each (according to InfoAvion, an Argentinian publication), all to allow the Siemens D-SP260 to flex its 300 horsepower muscle and demonstrate what 1,000 Newton-meters (737 foot-pounds) of torque can do for vertical rolls.
A small, powerful motor fronting for a an extra-large battery pack
Flying Magazine thought that its display at AERO Friedrichshafen in Germany “could be a harbinger of the future of emission-free airshow performances.”
Siemens intends to use the 330LE for flight test and optimization of a electric propulsion system based on the 50 kilogram (110 pound) motor on display. Even the large battery array under the clear plastic cover (for Friedrichshafen only, one presumes, although it would be a style leader on any airfield) will give only about 15 to 20 minutes of wide-open airshow power, enough for a great routine, lacking only the airshow noise. We’re all looking forward to a demonstration.
Comments 3
And I am looking forward to see that batttery pack replaced by a SOFC Ethanol fuel cell like the one being develloped by the automaker NISSAN…
18.6kWh x 14 gives 260kWh, why it’s enough only for 15 minutes for 260kW engine???
(Editor’s Note: See Mr. Wagner’s excellent review of your editor’s (incorrect) math.)
“houses 14 battery packs of 18.6 kilowatt-hours each” is probably a mistake.
14 packs with 18.6 kWh would be 256.2 kWh total or round about 1700 kg (calculated with Li-Ion battery technology, gravimetric energydensity aprox. 130 Wh/kg for whole battery-system with cooling and casing)
Maybe the Extra 330 LE has two packs with 18.6 kWh and 286 kg ?
(Editor’s note: Unsure as to the total number of 286 kilogram battery packs, but certainly your editor created a much-too-heavy battery pack.)