The world’s single most important aerospace event, the airlines/boeing-negotiating-new-deals-for-737-max-planes-at-paris-airshow.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>Paris Air Show, took place this past week, running from June 17 through June 23, 2019. During the event, buyers placed orders for more than 400 fossil fuel-powered aircraft valued at around $15 billion, as airlines continue to bolster their fleets.
However, an unanticipated newcomer seemed to make a particular impression on the industry professionals in attendance. Israeli start-up company Eviation told attendees that U.S. regional airline Cape Air is set to purchase a “double-digit” number of its cutting-edge, all-electric aircraft—making them the world’s first commercial electric airplanes.
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Massachusetts-based Cape Air is one of the largest regional airlines operating in the U.S., serving around half a million passengers annually with short-range flights in various areas of the American Northeast and Midwest and in the Caribbean.
Called “Alice,” the aircraft is a nine-passenger, commuter plane designed to make short-range flights of up to 650 miles at around 240 knots (276 miles per hour) and a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. The visually striking prototype of this $4-million, all-electric aircraft was also on display at the Paris Air Show.
Israeli startup Eviation unveils an electric plane able to take nine people over 600 hundred miles on a single charge at the #ParisAirShow pic.twitter.com/OTXIpWGihg
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 18, 2019
The prototype carries a 900-kilowatt lithium-ion battery (about nine times bigger than Tesla’s largest automotive battery). It is sustainable, low-noise and emission-free and promises to save big bucks when it comes to the cost of fuel.
Most of Eviation’s funding is from Clermont Group, the private investment fund of Singapore-based billionaire Richard Chandler, who holds a 70 percent stake in the company and also owns and finances magniX—the firm that manufactures Alice’s electric motors.
According to a report from Quartz, Omer Bar-Yohay, the company’s chief executive, stated that Alice would next be transferred to Arizona in the U.S. to be flight-tested before being put forward for certification with the Federal Aviation Administration.
airline-as-first-customer.html” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>CNBC News reported Bar-Yohay told a press conference Tuesday that he expected to receive certification by late 2021, with deliveries predicted for 2022.
For more information, visit eviation.co/alice.
