JLR To Offer Ground Support For Rolls-Royce’s All-Electric Flight Speed World Record Attempt

Rolls-Royce’s all-electric aircraft the ‘Spirit of Innovation’ will take to the skies for the first time in the coming working towards a world-record attempt with a target speed of 300+ MPH (480+ KMH). The carbon-neutral project will be supported by Jaguar Land Rover with their all-electric zero-emission Jaguar I-PACE cars as towing and support vehicles.

The Electric aircraft has been created by the ACCEL program, short for ‘Accelerating the Electrification of Flight’, which includes key partners YASA, the electric motor and controller manufacturer, and aviation start-up Electroflight. Half of the project’s funding is provided by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and Innovate UK.

Rob Watson, Director of Rolls-Royce Electrical said: “Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover are UK pioneers who are focused on advancing electrical technology for their respective sectors. We are delighted that Jaguar Land Rover are loaning us I-PACE vehicles as we bid to develop the world’s fastest all-electric plane. It is important to us that the ACCEL program is carbon neutral and this will be supported by having all-electric cars for ground support.”

The Spirit of Innovation aircraft features an electric propulsion system delivering 500hp+ with the most power-dense battery pack ever assembled for an aircraft providing enough energy to fuel 250 homes or fly London to Paris on a single charge. The I-PACE uses two electric motors producing a total of 394hp with power delivered by a state-of-the-art 90kWh Lithium-ion battery featuring 432 pouch cells. Coincidentally, the I-PACE is capable of 292 miles (WLTP) on a single charge – exactly the distance by road from London to Paris. 

Rawdon Glover, Jaguar Land Rover UK MD, said: “The I-PACE is a real pioneer; when it launched in 2018, it was the world’s first premium all-electric SUV, establishing Jaguar as a leader in electrification and setting the brand on a path to become fully electric by 2025. We’re delighted to be supporting another great British pioneer Rolls-Royce and their team as the ‘Spirit of Innovation’ aircraft brings electrified aviation into the nation’s psyche with this incredible 300mph record attempt.”

The ACCEL project is part of Rolls-Royce’s journey towards enabling the sectors in which we operate reach net zero carbon by 2050. We will be using the technology from the ACCEL project and applying it to products for the market, bringing a portfolio of motors, power electronics, and batteries into the general aerospace, urban air mobility and small commuter aircraft sectors. In a similar vein, the Jaguar Racing Formula E team’s experiences on-track help generate real-world improvements in Jaguar’s road-going electric vehicles. Several members of the ACCEL project team have come from Formula E backgrounds.