The first medium-range electric passenger plane made its maiden flight. Alice from eViation left the runway a week ago to do a few laps at 1,200 metres. Historic moment in aviation history.

In fact, I had and wanted to inform you about this a week ago, as a follow-up to my blog about the aircraft factory at Teuge Airport. But as you may have seen and heard, for the past few weeks I’ve been very busy with another part of my journalistic work, the Biglmer disaster. For those who missed it: Multimedia Production disaster journey It can still be seen.

Scheduled Services

In any case, the good news is still from the United States, where for the first time an electric plane for nine passengers has taken to the skies. After years of preparation, Israeli startup eViation put Alice on the air on September 27. After the two-seater from Pipistrel, which already flies in the Netherlands at flight school E-Flight Academy, and the air taxi from Germany’s Lilium, among others, has now taken off for the first time an electric aircraft that can maintain scheduled services with eleven passengers in the future, just a short distance away. Over four hundred miles. This is what I call a very mature flight.

In 2019, eViation presented its Alice product at the aviation fair in Le Bourget near Paris. The plane will already make its first test flight in 2021. But a fire has thrown a wrench in the works. The setback was used to improve the design further. For example, instead of the engines at the tips of the wing, two engines were placed near the tail. But other than that, the design has remained largely intact.

Better batteries please

doesn’t he have first flight A modest eight minutes by air. They climbed to about 1200 meters and flew a few laps around the airport. They ran so smoothly and passersby could hear that you could hardly or no longer hear the device. Electric motors are quieter than jet engines and older propeller engines, for both commuters and locals.

Unfortunately, eViation had to push the date of the first scheduled flights with Alice two years ago, from 2025 to 2027. The reason is mainly the delay in battery development. In order to achieve at least four hundred kilometers of flight range, the batteries must become lighter per kilowatt-hour of electricity … Fortunately, a lot of work is being done all over the world in this regard, because many other electric aircraft , but of course also electric cars and what not.

hold the sky

The Alice will be available in three variants: a nine-passenger and two-pilot aircraft, a luxury business model and a cargo version. The latter can take 1,250 kilograms of freight, a dozen of which have already been ordered by the parcel carrier DHL. As said, Alice will have a range of 400 kilometers to start with, but that should be able to grow to 500. The machine then cuts that distance in less than an hour, and has a top speed of 480 kilometers per hour. It takes you within an hour to London, Paris, Hamburg and Frankfurt, to name a few.

eViation came into the hands of wealthy New Zealander Richard Chandler a few years ago. Through his Clermont Group, he also acquired MagniX, a manufacturer of electric motors for aircraft. Those engines, of course, propelled Alice into the air last week. Chandler could very well become Elon Musk to fly. I wonder if he will also keep an eye on a Dutch e-fly startup in the coming years.