Local group enters electric airplane race
Only group from Canada set to enter premiere event happening in fall 2020
A team led by Edmonton engineer Scott Holmes is trying to accomplish a first.
They want to build a craft capable of winning Air Race E, the first electric airplane race, which is set to take place in fall 2020.
The race is a variation of Formula One Air Racing, a motorsport not unlike auto racing. In it, planes fly simultaneously around a five-kilometre circuit, 10 metres above the ground, at speeds up to 450 kilometres an hour.
Team Outlaw, headed by Holmes, is one of eight squads participating, and the only team from Canada.
“The nature of air racing is all about who can design and modify an airplane to beat the next guy or girl,” said Holmes, who will pilot the plane.
“With the whole electric thing, the game is the same. The only difference is, instead of being covered with oil, we have high-voltage signs all over it. There’s different problems.”
It is an unfamiliar challenge, though, which Holmes said is leading to plenty of innovation. He asked some friends who work in the electric vehicle industry in Silicon Valley to join his team and share their expertise in the field.
The team is converting a Cassutt racer plane previously used for traditional air-racing to an all-electric vehicle. They’re doing so at the Villeneuve Airport, about 40 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
“We figured, wow, that plane would be perfect to convert. I’m very comfortable flying that airplane, I know how to glide the airplane really well,” Holmes said. “It’s a Formula One-legal airplane already, we know how to take it apart and bring it around the world because we’ve been doing it for years.”
So far, Holmes said the conversion is going well, with individual parts all working. Once they’re all mounted in, they’ll continue testing it on ground and eventually in the air. Holmes, 30, has been drawn to planes all his life. He loved to build Lego airplanes as a kid before quickly graduating to the real thing. He first flew at 16 and then got his pilot’s licence at 17.
He became interested in flying for sport while studying engineering at the University of Alberta. Once he started working full time and had some spending money, he discovered high-speed racing and dived in head-first.
As far as planes go, it’s a relatively cheap pursuit — Holmes said planes can be bought for less than the cost of a 2019 Honda Civic.
The location and exact date for the race has yet to be set.