Greased Lightning or GL-10 (Photo : YouTube/NASA Langley Research Center )
The space research organization NASA has developed and successfully flight tested a 10-engine battery-powered plane called Greased Lightning that can take off vertically like a helicopter and fly like an aircraft, Tech Times reported.
According to the scientists at NASA's Langley Research Center, the Greased Lightning or GL-10 prototype is the outcome of months of testing of models of various configurations and sizes.
Bill Fredericks, an Aerospace Engineer at NASA, said that they have several options that this concept could be good for. It could be used for applications such as long endurance surveillance for agriculture and mapping.
At present, the Greased Lightning is in the testing and design phase.
David North, an aerospace engineer, said that they created 12 prototypes, beginning with five-pound foam models and after that 2.5-pound, highly modified fibreglass hobby airplane kits leading up to 55-pound, good quality, carbon fibre GL-10 built in their model shop by technicians.
He further said that every prototype helped them answer technical questions while keeping expenses low. They did lose some of the early prototypes to hard landings. North added that they were able to keep moving forward.because they discovered something from every loss, according to Phys.org.
The GL-10 has two electric motors on the tail, 8 electric motors on the wings and weighs 62 pounds. It has a wingspan of 10 feet.
Fredericks said that during the flight tests they successfully transitioned from hover to wing-borne flight like a traditional airplane then back to hover again.
Researchers are now working to show that this concept is more aerodynamically efficient in cruise than a helicopter.
