Largest All-Electric Commercial Aircraft Completes First Flight
The planet’s “largest all electric commercial aircraft” has completed its maiden flight, the latest example of a zero-emission form of transport taking to the skies. The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan took off from an airport in Moses Lake, Washington, on Thursday and used a 750-horsepower all-electric motor developed by a Redmond-headquartered company called magniX. Work to convert the aircraft was undertaken by magniX and another firm called AeroTEC.
Workhorse
“The iconic Caravan has been a workhorse of industry moving people and transporting goods on short routes for decades,” Roei Ganzarski, the chief executive officer of magniX, said in a statement.
“This first flight of the eCaravan is yet another step on the road to operating these middlemile aircraft at a fraction of the cost, with zero emissions, from and to smaller airports,” Ganzarski added.
“These electric commercial aircraft will enable the offering of flying services of people and packages in a way previously not possible.”
Thursday’s flight represents another step forward for electric aircraft, albeit a small one. In December 2019, the world’s first fully-electric aircraft for commercial flight completed a test in Canada.
Targets
The DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver seaplane used in that flight was also fitted with a motor from magniX.
For the first time in about two decades, the world’s secondlargest economy did not to set an annual GDP target at its latest parliamentary meeting. Instead, authorities set targets for items such as unemployment.
Many economists said removing the target will hopefully improve the quality of growth, and predict the economy could expand by about one per cent to three per cent this year.
Biofuel
According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, “commercial aviation accounts for about two per cent of global carbon emissions.”
For the transportation sector as a whole, its responsible for around 12 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions.
In a bid to reduce the environmental impact of aviation, some airlines, such as KLM, have used bio-fuels to power their planes. The last few years have also seen a number of innovative aircraft complete journeys. Cessna 208B Grand Caravan In 2016, the Solar Impulse 2, a manned aircraft powered by the sun, managed to circumnavigate the globe without using fuel. The trip was completed in 17 separate legs.
In 2018, an unmanned solarpowered aircraft from European aerospace giant Airbus completed a maiden flight lasting 25 days, 23 hours, and 57 minutes.