The Maeve 01 is the latest big dream from The Netherlands’ Delft Technical University – which seems to be a resource-rich aeronautical community producing myriad flying machines. The airplane comes with a novel recharging system, the Maeve ReCharge network – all to provide “Aviation for a generation that wants to travel, not pollute.” The eight motors spanning its high-aspect ratio wings could be replaced by six, but that depends on replacing the eight 1.2 megawatt (1609 hp.) motors with 1.5 megawatt (2,012 hp.) units. This seems plausible, since Jeff Engler’s Wright Electric has recently tested a 2 megawatt (2,682 hp.) motor and ZeroAvia plans on delivering 2 MW units to retrofit DeHavilland Dash 8s within the next few years. One possible downside would be having less of the 36-meter (118.1 foot) wing swept by the propellers. Maeve founder Jan Willem Heinen explains the eight motors and their possible replacement by six more powerful units. “The reason why we went for …
