Meet the Team
Sean Clarke
Sean Clarke
Principal Investigator, AFRC
"Electric propulsion technologies are really exciting. They let you build airplanes differently than we ever have before. So, we can put motors in strange places on an airplane like on the tail or at the wingtip. That's what we're doing on X-57, putting our new motors out at the wingtip."
Dionne Hernandez-Lugo
Dionne Hernandez-Lugo
Battery Development Lead, GRC
"We exposed the battery to the conditions of an X-57 flight, to make sure the capacity and thermal conditions stayed within safe limits. The battery passed. This really gave us the peace of mind that, even if an event does occur, we have a design in place that's going to allow us to continue to operate, and land the plane safely without having any fire. This helped us understand that this battery is safe enough to use in flight."
Nick Borer
Nick Borer
Performance and Sizing Lead, LaRC
"The X-57 will certainly change the nature of the (aircraft) sound and this is really one of the exciting pieces of this research. There's a whole new ... freedom for us to play with, to shape how an airplane sounds."
Tim Williams
Tim Williams
X-57 Pilot, AFRC
"There are many different experimental parts to this airplane...the primary goal for me is, no matter what happens, I bring it back safely, so I can fly it another day."
Matt Redifer
Matt Redifer
Chief Engineer, AFRC
"What I think is really cool about X-57 is that it's not just taking a standard airplane and electrifying it. It's actually showing the improvement in efficiency that you can get from the aircraft by coupling electric propulsion with the aerodynamics of the aircraft."
