Airbus unveils the world’s first electric racing aircraft

The plane can reach a speed of 483 km/h, although a fully charged battery can only last for 5 minutes.

The electric plane White Lightning is a new joint development created by Airbus and the University of Nottingham. The aircraft can reach a maximum speed of 483 km/h. 

The plane was specially developed for Air Race E, the world’s first all-electric airplane competition. Eight pilots will compete against each other by flying along a circular race track at a height of 10 meters above the ground. Each plane will reach a maximum speed of 400 km/h. The races are scheduled for 2020. 

Airbus engineers will use White Lightning to test control systems and other technical solutions to establish future applications of these technologies to manufacture all-electric full-fledged passenger planes. 

The current bottleneck is the flight range of the aircraft. A fully charged battery is only enough for a five-minute flight. At a lower speed, White Lightning can remain in the air for up to 10 minutes.