Posted on 09/28/2022 1:00:50 PM PDT by Red Badger
A historic moment for zero-emissions flight, as the 9-seat Alice commuter plane makes its first test flightEviation
After showing off with some extravagant runway wheelies last week, Alice, the "world's first all-electric commuter aircraft," lifted off overnight on a historic first flight. It's another major milestone toward zero-emissions medium-range air travel.
Alice took off at 7.10 am local time from Grant County International Airport in Washington state, and made a short, 8-minute circuit, reaching an altitude of 3,500 ft (1,067 m) before coming in and touching down.
"Today we embark on the next era of aviation – we have successfully electrified the skies with the unforgettable first flight of Alice," said Eviation President and CEO Gregory Davis. "People now know what affordable, clean and sustainable aviation looks and sounds like for the first time in a fixed-wing, all-electric aircraft. This ground-breaking milestone will lead innovation in sustainable air travel, and shape both passenger and cargo travel in the future."
Eviation is targeting 2026 for FAA certification and entry into service Eviation is targeting 2026 for FAA certification and entry into serviceEviation It is indeed a significant moment, although there's a way to go yet. The Alice we see flying in the video below is still an experimentally registered prototype, rather than a fully certified production aircraft. Eviation still has to run it through a full and rigorous flight test regime, and jump through the many hoops of FAA certification, not just for the aircraft and all its systems, but also for the company itself as a design organization and a production facility. The company hopes to have this all squared away and get Alice into service by 2026.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
8 minutes? Lol.
They’ll just slap some solar panels on it and it can stay up all day.
They should put solar panels on the top wing surfaces.
Is 8 minutes their maximum range?
“Over night”? Solar aircraft? Hmm...
What could possibly go wrong?
“The claimed range has dwindled to just 288 miles . . . the max speed is now up from 253 mph (407 km/h) to 299 mph (481 km/h).”
So it’s bigger, but has about 1/5 the range at the same speed as my Cessna T240 that my wife can also fly that costs 1/3.
I wonder how many dead EVs are on the side of the road right now, tried to evacuate from the hurricane and went kaput.
The flight took place at Grant County Airport in Moses Lake, former Space Shuttle emergency landing strip.
Maybe. I had a genuine Walkman for a while, until some nasty chemicals got spilled on it ... Replaced it with a Sanyo device. Pretty much same performance. I also always used alkaline batteries.
Not really worth much thought any more ...
Anyway, I’m impressed that they got this bird off the ground at all. I still don’t like the idea.
Be more impressed if the design team were aboard.
8 whole minutes ain’t much.
>PING<
Tell us then.
I appreciate they may not be flavour of the month around these parts, but I read an interesting article about the new Russian hybrid aircraft engines.
“Prius “powered aircraft. It was serious and they are going into production.
If anyone is interested I think it was a Sukhoi and Kamov project.
“Cessna T240 “
I’ve been out of general aviation a while, hadn’t seen that; neat! Low wing. Did Cessna buy the completed design from another manufacturer, maybe experimental category?
Zero emissions from the plane but a lot from the electricity generating plants.
You will never see me set foot aboard an electric powered aircraft. I hope it won’t take too many people to die before they stop this particular insanity.
“I find it hard to believe that electric aircraft will ever be anything more than local commuter and air taxi services.”
And while I hate EVs in general, for niches I don’t have a problem.
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