UK’s Tempest Stealth Jet Could Utilize Motorsport Tech

The British Tempest combat jet currently under development could use technologies from the motorsport industry to make them more powerful, faster, and efficient.

Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Technology Officer for BAE Systems’ Air sector, said: “Working in partnership with companies like WAE is vital to drive rapid innovation at the pace the Tempest programme demands. Changing how we engage with wider industry and leveraging the best technologies and processes from across the global supply chain is essential in order to deliver value to the UK, our international partners and our allies.”

BAE Systems and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) have joined forces to explore how battery management and cooling technologies from the motorsport industry could be exploited to deliver efficiency and performance gains in the design of future combat aircraft. This study forms part of a wider U.K. research effort to develop a set of capabilities designed to support a fully-connected future combat air system.

The Tempest aircraft will join the Royal Air Force (RAF) fleet from 2035, replacing the Typhoon.

“An Oxfordshire-based specialist team from WAE is working closely with BAE Systems engineers in Lancashire to inform and guide thinking about how future aircraft could fly faster and more efficiently than anything before,” BAE Systems said in a release today.

The project is part of a wider research effort to develop technologies that could be used to develop the most advanced combat air system for the United Kingdom, the company said.

It added, “Next generation combat air technologies will need high-power at low weight in order to provide long range endurance and mission success. Future systems will also need to generate enough energy to power a small town, which can be managed safely and efficiently throughout the aircraft and its subsystems, with pilots depending on high-performance ‘power when you need it’ combat air capability.”

WAE delivers advanced battery technologies that provide durable, fast charging power capability and was recently appointed as the Gen3 exclusive battery system supplier of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.