[freebeard]

I can't find a good aircraft thread to drop this in. www.theregister.co.uk: Airbus and Rolls-Royce hit eject on hybrid-electric airliner testbed after E-Fan X project fails to get off the ground

Rolls-Royce chief techie Paul Stein said in a statement last week: "Although our programme with Airbus concludes, we are planning that our power generation system ground testing will complete, allowing us to demonstrate the technology and capture all the lessons."

The British engine maker's CTO enthused over the fruits of the project to date, saying: "Amongst the many great achievements from E-Fan X has been the generator – about the same size as a beer keg – but producing a staggering 2.5MW. That's enough power to supply 2,500 homes and fully represents the pioneering spirit on this project."

Strangely, in March The Engineer magazine reckoned that the Cranfield, Bedfordshire-based BAe-146 was ready for initial, non-electric, test flights this year. Although the BAe-146 can fly on three of its four conventional jet engines, Cranfield's runway isn't long enough to do that safely.

Best laid plans, eh?