A few days ago, the world’s largest all-electric plane took off from a Washington State airstrip for its first flight, staying in the air for 28 minutes.
A live inaugural flight.
The skies were clear for the first flight of MagniX, the largest all-electric transport aircraft ever built in Redmond, Washington. It made its first flight last Thursday at a live Facebook event.
In collaboration with Seattle-based AeroTEC, the electric motor manufacturer has equipped a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan with its 750-horsepower Magni500 propulsion system. The « e-Caravan » took off from AeroTEC’s Moses Lake flight test center and flew for nearly 30 minutes, climbing to 2,500 feet and operating « flawlessly, » according to AeroTEC chief test pilot Steve Crane.
A well-considered choice
What everyone here is hearing is the Cessna 182 fighter jet, » said Roei Ganzarski, CEO of MagniX, during the live-stream. « The caravan makes almost no noise, it’s actually quite incredible.
he choice of the Caravan was intentional, according to Mr. Ganzarski; it is a widely used aircraft for passenger and cargo transport, which is still in production and has logged more than 20 million flying hours. And the first flight of the eCaravan – which took off and landed on time, and maintained an energy capacity ten per cent higher than MagniX and AeroTEC had planned – was intended to demonstrate « how mature and ready electric propulsion technology is for the world ».
Considerable savings
For us, it was really about taking something practical, something real … the Cessna Caravan is one of the most widely used mid-altitude aircraft, » said Ganzarski. « The only challenge many operators face is the engine up front, which consumes a lot of gas, produces a lot of emissions, requires a lot of maintenance and costs a lot of money per hour of operation.
Mr Ganzarski estimates that an electric version of the Caravan would reduce operating costs by 40 to 80 % per flight hour, which would significantly change the routes that operators can fly with it. The 30-minute test flight, which would normally use more than $300 worth of kerosene, used less than $6 worth of electricity, according to Ganzarski.
An historic flight
Manufacturers have stated that the electric aircraft is more environmentally friendly and cheaper to operate than its fossil-fuel powered counterparts.
« As the world’s largest all-electric aircraft, this first flight is an important milestone that will shake up the transportation industry and accelerate the electric aviation revolution, » said magniX in announcing the flight, which took off from an airstrip in Lake Moses. A smaller aircraft, powered by a magniX electric motor, made its first 15-minute flight in December 2019.