Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, the enginemaker known for powering Airbus SE and Boeing Co. workhorse jets, expects a fully-electric small aircraft in three to five years, a top executive said.
The first commercial application of P-Volt, a battery electric system developed by Rolls-Royce, will have about 600 kilowatt hours of power, which will enable flying six to eight people as far as 80 nautical miles, Rob Watson, president of the company’s electrical division, said in an interview in Singapore on Monday. That range will keep improving with better battery technology, and may eventually be able to fly as much as 400 kilometers (250 miles) in the 2030s, London-based Watson, who’s attending the biennial Singapore Airshow this week, said.
