New York (CNN Business) — The world’s first all-electric passenger plane is preparing to take flight.
The Alice plane, developed by the Israeli company Eviation, underwent engine tests last week at Arlington Municipal Airport, north of Seattle. According to Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay, Alice is just weeks away from making her first flight.
With battery technology similar to that of an electric car or a mobile phone and 30 minutes of charging, the Alice plane, with capacity for nine passengers, will be able to fly for one hour and about 815 kilometers. The aircraft has a maximum cruising speed of 250 knots, or 463 kilometers per hour. For reference, a Boeing 737 has a maximum cruise speed of 946 kilometers per hour. The company, focused exclusively on electric air transport, hopes that electric planes with capacity for between 20 and 40 passengers will be a reality within seven or ten years.
A prototype of the aircraft, which was launched in 2019, has been undergoing low-speed taxi tests since December and will attempt a high-speed taxi test in the coming weeks. In these tests, the aircraft is sent down the runway at different speeds to test its own power and allow teams on the ground to monitor systems such as steering, braking and anti-slip. Although the company originally intended for the Alice to take flight before 2022, poor weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest later in the year made testing difficult.
Eviation developed three versions of the prototype: a “commuter” variant, an executive version, and a specialized cargo version. The “commuter” configuration under test has capacity for nine passengers and two pilots, as well as 385 kilograms of cargo. The executive version has six passenger seats for a more spacious flight, and the cargo plane has 12.7 cubic meters of volume.
All this is possible while reducing the maintenance and operating costs of commercial aircraft by up to 70%, according to the company.
The electric aviation industry is already filling up with startups and established aviation companies. The NASA awarded $253 million in September 2021 to GE Aviation and magniX to bring the technology to U.S. fleets by 2035. Boeing invested $450 million in Wisk Aero, a company building a fully electric, autonomous passenger plane, and Airbus has been working on its own electric aviation projects since 2010.
According to industry experts, the biggest obstacle to electric aviation becoming the norm on passenger planes is the battery.
“The main stumbling block is battery technology, just like in cars, but more so in airplanes. For airplanes, the concern is weight,” says Ross Aimer, CEO of Aero Consulting Experts. “As soon as we have better battery technology, which I suspect will be two or three years from now, that’s when all these electric planes come.”
International shipping company DHL has ordered twelve Alice aircraft, scheduled for delivery in 2024. Part of DHL Express’ global fleet of more than 280 aircraft, these aircraft will be used for short-haul cargo transportation.
“Our aspiration is to contribute substantially to reducing our carbon footprint, and these fleet and technology advancements will go a long way toward achieving further carbon reductions,” Mike Parra, CEO of DHL Express America, said in an interview. with CNNBusiness.
Eviation announced the purchase of its proposed fleet by DHL and commuter airline CapeAir and says there are several more to be announced once Alice’s first flight occurs. CapeAir’s proposed fleet of Alice aircraft is expected to enter service in 2023 on routes connecting Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Hyannis.
While it looks like we’re getting closer to battery-powered air travel for some features, not everything is nearly ready. For example, transoceanic flights and jumbo jets are still light years ahead of current science. But the most pressing concern for electric aviation is regulation. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has yet to come up with any clear guidelines or regulatory framework for electric aircraft, which fall under the category of Advanced Air Mobility, although Eviation says it is actively working with the FAA to achieve certification for production by 2024. “Some certifications may require the FAA to issue special conditions or additional airworthiness criteria, depending on the type of project. Determining qualifications for these aircraft is an ongoing process,” according to a spokesperson. of the FAA.
Electric aviation advocates predict that Alice and electric planes like it will become as commonplace as any other mode of transportation. “It really integrates aviation into the fabric of transportation, of our daily lives. And it does so by being sustainable and economically viable,” says Bar-Yohay. “Once we start seeing planes like this, it’s going to change the whole way we look at where we live, how we get around, how we go on vacation. It’s going to be a high-speed train without tracks.”
But electric planes big enough to rival large airliners may still be some way off.
“The first step would be to test them in the commuter market or the charter market,” says Aimer. “Then, if it works well, there will be passenger planes. For that we need Boeing or Airbus to launch a real electric plane. I would see it in about 10 years.”
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