Acorn...“All very recent stuff. Not like petrol powered ice engines that have had a 100 year head start.”
errrr... not quite right.. most trains are diesel electric as are those huge ore trucks.. meaning electric motive power has been in production for a long, long time as has been the research to keep building a better mousetrap.
Seperate to that, electric motors have been in use in a gazillion different applications. Again research to build a better mousetrap there has also been going ahead.
Nearly every motive power on spaceships and space stations are electric. You can be sure that NASA’s R&D efforts into electric motors has been epic.
