Rolls-Royce’s All-Electric Aircraft Breaks World Speed Records

Rolls-Royce claimed today that its all-electric ‘Spirit of Innovation’ aircraft has broken world speed records.

“We have submitted data to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) – the World Air Sports Federation who control and certify world aeronautical and astronautical records – that at 15:45 (GMT) on 16 November 2021, the aircraft reached a top speed of 555.9 km/h (345.4 mph) over 3 kilometres, smashing the existing record by 213.04 km/h (132mph),” the company said.

In further runs at the UK Ministry of Defence’s Boscombe Down experimental aircraft testing site, the aircraft achieved 532.1km/h (330 mph) over 15 kilometres – 292.8km/h (182mph) faster than the previous record – and broke the fastest time to climb to 3000 metres by 60 seconds with a time of 202 seconds.

“We hope that the FAI will certify and officially confirm the achievements of the team in the near future,” the company added.

During its record-breaking runs, the aircraft clocked up a maximum speed of 623 km/h (387.4 mph) which Rolls-Royce believe makes the ‘Spirit of Innovation’ the world’s fastest all-electric vehicle.