A powerful motor and innovative aerodynamics are expected to assist a British engineering company achieve a world speed record of quite 400km/h (250mph) for a motorbike .

The electric motorcycle will have emissions and economy implications for current and future electric and conventionally-powered motorcycles.

White Motorcycle Concepts has unveiled its prototype motorcycle which company founder and Chief military officer Rob White will ride in attempts to interrupt British and world electric land speed records over subsequent 12 months.

It features three innovative technologies.

The company’s ultra-low drag system called V-Air features a large duct at the centre of the bike which forces air through the vehicle, instead of around it.

V-Air reduces the WMC250EV’s aerodynamic resistance by the maximum amount as 70% compared thereto of the market-leading high performance road bike consistent with the results of wind-tunnel testing at MIRA.

Aerodynamics of the bike and therefore the rider are the most important drain on motorcycle power and efficiency.

Australian Triple8 racing engineer Jeromy Moore says it’s difficult for motorcycles to match a car’s aerodynamics, because they’re too short.

“With aero, it’ll be hard to urge a bike’s cD down because it is sort of short therefore the air has got to deflect at larger angles to travel around and rejoin,” he says.

It seems the V-Air duct may have overcome this issue, especially with the rider tucked behind the fairing as within the above photo.

The duct also increases the axial load on the front of the motorcycle allowing the WMC250EV utilise a D-Drive motor unit that powers the front wheel, which in-turn makes it possible to harness regenerative braking energy – something unachievable with a standard motorcycle. The third innovation, F-Drive final drive system, could filter right down to your own motorcycle.

It is designed to offer the bike a lift in power and enhance efficiency.

The WMC250EV high-speed demonstrator has been quite two years within the making and has already been granted a UK patent and expects Europe, the USA and Japan to imitate by the top of August.

If adopted by major manufacturers, these British devised technologies have the potential to scale back CO2 emissions across the industry and accelerate the mass-market de-carbonisation of motorcycles globally.

White, who has quite 25 years’ experience of world championship level motorsport, including Formula 1 and Le Mans, initially conceived his idea for V-Air six years ago, but it had been exposure to Formula 1 packaging and sports car aerodynamics that gave him the arrogance to pursue it seriously.

Having formed WMC in 2019, White reached into his network of contacts gained through his career.

Rob Lewis MBE, the owner of Total Sim and a worldwide leader in sports aerodynamics, recognised V-Air’s potential and supported the project through the initial proof of concept.

The Northamptonshire company began developing the all-carbon fibre WMC250EV High Speed Demonstrator to F1 standards of design specification, component-packaging and technology with the ambition to check its potential to the very best standard.

“If you would like to demonstrate to the remainder of the planet that you’ve just invented a replacement aerodynamic concept meaning you’ll go faster for a given power, the simplest thing to try to to is go as fast you’ll ,” Rob says.

“That’s why we created WMC250EV high-speed demonstrator, the foremost radical version of this idea , to challenge for the planet land speed record. it’s electric, as that’s the pre-eminent zero emissions power source at the instant , but because the aerodynamic concept provides efficiency benefit, it could even as easily be hydrogen or the other future power source.”

The concept’s more wide-reaching implication is that the impact it could wear vehicular energy efficiency, resulting in better fuel economy and lower emissions.

“The records are all champagne, but are literally the insignificant a part of the story,” Rob says.

“While this technology allows you to travel faster, it also allows you to travel much further for an equivalent amount of energy. This features a direct and tangible benefit on CO2 reduction. Market-disruptive ideas like this are uncommon, and if successful, have the potential to revolutionise industry.”

WMC is already performing on a real-world application for the innovation and is producing a 300cc three-wheel hybrid scooter – the WMC300FR – that has V-Air technology and reduces drag by 25%.

That equates to 18% improvement in fuel efficiency, from aerodynamic improvements alone and when including alittle hybrid system enhances the performance to somewhere near 500cc levels, but with 50% less CO2 emissions.

“What we’ve managed to try to to is create something for the planet market sector where people can use these vehicles during a city where the population is most effected by CO2 output and pollution – and we’ve managed to chop CO2 by 50% through aerodynamics and hybridisation,” Rob says.

The land speed record programme meanwhile is fully underway, with shakedowns continuing through the summer and an effort on the Motorcycle Electric Semi Streamliner British Record planned for afterward this year.

Then the main target for WMC switches to the world’s largest salt plain , the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, where Rob will plan to set a replacement mark for the electrical Semi Streamliner record in July 2022.

“What started off as some sketches of a thought i used to be pondering, has become an initiative which will potentially change the motorcycle industry,” he says.

“I’ve always loved speed, and motorcycles. The challenge of breaking the planet record satisfies a tenacity to realize great things. But more importantly, it’s the right thanks to practically demonstrate that the idea behind this technology works.

“There are other record attempts running concurrently that have superstar riders and talismanic leaders fronting the projects, except for me and WMC the star is that the technology. It’s a product of British engineering ingenuity and it’s a true potential to disrupt the industry during a very positive way, becoming a crucial step towards the mass manufacture of non-fossil fuelled motorcycles, another milestone on the road to a zero-emission future.

“The company’s ambitions are great, and that we aim to constantly produce high level engineering with environmental responsibility at its core, reducing carbon emissions throughout the whole motorcycle market from design and manufacture to finish use.”