The era of electric vehicles is starting to spread more widely. Not just cars and motorbikes, or land vehicles. Now the electric plane has begun to be tested in flight.
Quoted by autoblog and The Seattle Times, a prototype electric passenger airplane made by startup company Eviation has undergone flight tests in Washington DC. This test is directly supervised by the Federal Aviation Administration Certification.
The flight test of the world's first electric airplane was claimed to have succeeded satisfactorily.
This is the first aircraft in the world to have electric propulsion. As a source of energy storage, this aircraft is equipped with 21,500 battery cells, which are said to be similar to electric car battery cells. In addition, no other information has been leaked by Eviation.
If you look at the dimensions offered, this electric plane is a small plane, with a capacity of 9 passengers and 2 pilots.
The flight test of this electric plane was carried out on Tuesday (27/9/2022) at Mases Lake Washington at 7:10 am local time. This electric plane only airs for 8 minutes and then immediately lands again.
Although the flight duration is very short, Eviation carried out flight tests to prove that electric aircraft have a promising future for use as commuter aircraft, capable of flying at an altitude of about 15,000 feet (4,572 meters).
According to Electreck, Eviation is a leading company in the development of electric aircraft. It is reported that they have opened orders for the aircraft unit and will start making deliveries in 2026.
Currently, the electric plane made by Eviation is claimed to be able to cover a flight distance of 965 km. Although many are not impressed by the distance, Eviation says about 30% of flights worldwide are under 400 km.
That means, the aircraft they produce will have a large enough market when it is officially released later.
