Ms. Ginn heads the currently nick-named X-57 Maxwell project, a multi-motor airplane named after “James Clerk Maxwell, a 19th-century Scottish physicist who came up with the basic equations underlying electromagnetism,” according to a New York Times story.
X-57 SCEPTOR “Maxwell” with LEAPTech wing, 14 motors
Her LinkedIn profile says she is “NASA Armstrong Deputy Aeronautics Research Director for strategic formulation of aeronautics research goals. Works with the Aeronautics Research Mission Director and staff to define new aeronautics programs and execute projects. POC (proof of concept) for Hybrid Electric Aircraft Research at AFRC and X-57 SCEPTOR. Convergent Aeronautic Solutions Project Liaison at AFRC (Armstrong Flight Research Center).”
Starr has been involved with a variety of technologies for NASA, capitalizing on her understanding of aeroelasticity. An early example, MADCAT, was a vision for electric aircraft, starting with a model-sized demonstration that morphing wings could offer aerodynamic and handling benefits to larger craft. It also exemplifies the philosophy of starting small, and “building our way up.”
MADCAT wing inspected by Jaiwon Shin, NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics. Model demonstrates principle of starting small and working up
She takes the long view, explaining it took 40 years to get from the Wright Brothers’ first flights to 40 passenger airplanes. She wants to achieve the same thing with electric aircraft in only 20 more. That may be helped by a 10-year aeronautics research budget for NASA, meant to focus on, “A future where we fly on aircraft that consume half as much fuel and generate only one quarter of current emissions. The future is “fueled by greener energy sources,” and will have quiet airplanes that “are better neighbors because aircraft noise is contained well within the airport boundary.”
NASA X-57 LEAPTech wing on HEIST mounting
Her oversight on the “synergistic integration of distributed electric propulsion” sees her working with all aspects of the budget, design, and testing of the X-57, a complex aircraft with (now) 14 motors, 12 driving small-diameter folding propellers and two on the extreme wing tips driving larger propulsors meant to counter wing-tip vortices and provide extremely high efficiency.
She works with the teams that encompass a wide range of technologies, all of which much fit into “convergent aeronautic solutions,” a phrase oft-repeated in these environs. She deals with aggressive schedules and as noted, not overly generous budgets to design, build and fly the new X-planes. Some of it sounds a bit like Hollywood venture capitalism, pitching a new idea and developing it quickly.
Integrating vehicle and energy elements with power and propulsion architectures might make Maxwell work. Its official name, Sceptor, stands for Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research, and it’s based partly on the LEAPTech (Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology) wing tested on the HEIST (Hybrid Electric Integrated Systems Testbed), a semi-truck wind tunnel on wheels. If all this makes for an alphabet soup of acronyms and abbreviations not seen since FDR’s administration, one can be forgiven for losing track. Starr Ginn doesn’t seem to let that dissuade her from bringing the project in on-time and on-budget.
The project has unearthed several difficulties, including electro-magnetic interference (EMI) from the multiple motors that can even shut down all power. The spiral development model Ms. Ginn administers allows rapid responses to new findings, however. Considerations like the use of system controllers for bus architectures that serve multiple power sources become an over-riding concern with the complexity of controlling the now current 14 motors. Who’s the last pilot you can think of who flew even a 10-engined airplane (B-36)?
We’ll look at individual contributors to this program in future CAFE Foundation EAS reports.