Web Desk (LTN NEWS): The first electric plane in the world flew 72 kilometers on electricity alone, which took 24 minutes to do.
New Atlas said that a company did the first flight in the world with an all-electric drivetrain.
The De Havilland Beaver, a seaplane that Harbour Air had fixed up, flew a test flight from the Canadian mainland to Vancouver Island to show that it was possible to fly without fuel.
Harbour Air, which says it is the largest seaplane airline in North America and that it transports almost half a million people each year, has promised to build the world’s first electric airplane by 2019.
With this goal in mind, they did some very brave things, like putting electric engines in its six-seater planes.
The company worked together with MagniX, which makes high-power electric motors as its main business.
At the end of 2019, the De Havilland Beaver, which had been changed, flew as an all-electric commercial plane. Since that successful flight, the company has kept testing and hopes to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US and Transport Canada in Canada.
This time, the plane took its first test flight from one place to another.
It ran on electricity alone for the whole 72-kilometer trip, which took 24 minutes to complete. It was said that the plane had a lot of power left after landing.
Kory Paul, Harbour Air’s Vice President of Flight Operations and one of the company’s test pilots, said, “I am thrilled to say that this historic flight on the ePlane went exactly as planned.”
