NASA is testing a new electric plane with 10 engines called the “Greased Lightning”.
The Greased Lightning is a mix between a helicopter and a plane. Each wing has four engines on it and there are two engines on the rudder. It operates like a three-engine plane with the four engines on each wing operating as one unit, reports Popular Mechanics.
The Greased Lightning can take off vertically with its wings and rudder tilted so that they are vertical. After gaining altitude, it can move its wings and rudder into normal positions for a plane. The current prototype weighs 62 pounds and has a wingspan of 10 feet, Popular Mechanics notes.
“We have a couple of options that this concept could be good for,” Bill Fredericks, an aerospace engineer at NASA, told The Epoch Times. “It could be used for small package delivery or vertical take off and landing, long endurance surveillance for agriculture, mapping and other applications.”
Check out a video of the Greased Lightning in action below.
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