NASA X-57 Maxwell

The NASA X-57 Maxwell is an experimental aircraft being developed by NASA, intended to demonstrate technology to reduce fuel use, emissions, and noise. Modified from a Tecnam P2006T, the X-57 will be a hybrid aircraft, with fourteen electric motors driving propellers mounted on the wing leading edges. The X-57 project was publicly revealed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on 16 June 2016 in a keynote speech to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) at its Aviation 2016 expo.

Development
The X-57, NASA's first X-plane in over a decade, is part of NASA's New Aviation Horizons initiative, which will also produce up to five larger-scale aircraft. The X-57 will be built by the agency's Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research (SCEPTOR) project, over a four-year development period at Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, with a first flight planned for 2017.

Design
The design of the aircraft grew out of a NASA project called Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology.

All fourteen electric motors will be used during takeoff and landing, with only the outer two used during cruise. The additional airflow over the wings created by the additional motors generates greater lift, allowing for a narrower wing. The aircraft will have a range of approximately 100 mi and a maximum flight time of approximately one hour, seating a single pilot. The X-57's designers hope to reduce by five-fold the energy necessary to fly a light aircraft at 175 mph.