Alice test flight: all-electric commuter airplane

[trainfanM]

Today marks the first test flight of Alice, an all-electric commuter airplane made by Eviation.

Alice seats nine-passengers and two pilots, has a max 440 nautical mile range fully charged, a cruising speed of 220 knots (260 knots max,) and can carry a payload of 2,500 lbs (2,600 lbs for the cargo version.) Alice’s batteries can be recharged within 30 minutes per flight hour.

So far, Cape Air (Northeastern US, Midwest US, the Caribbean) has ordered 75 Alice aircraft, Global Crossing Airlines (Bahamas, Florida, the Caribbean) has ordered 50, and DHL Express has ordered 12 cargo versions.

Eviation’s All-Electric Commuter Plane Takes To The Skies For The First Time

First Flight Video
https://twitter.com/EviationAero/sta...55036349386763

Eviation Website
Eviation – Eviation Alice


Cheers!

-- TFM

[Siwi]

Electric aircaft are certainly exciting, but I am a little skeptical of the high order numbers placed even before the first test flight. Apart from anything else like certification it is likely that pilots and maintainance crews will require some substantial retraining to operate a new power type.


There are some caveats - according to Flightglobal the stated range, speed, payload and battery size have all been reduced.


Charging 900kWh in 30 minutes is very fast indeed - requiring a 1800kWh charger, several orders of magnitude faster than those used by electric cars. It would charge my Zoe in about ninety seconds if the battery could handle it. In fact the correct figure seems to be 30 mins per 1h of flight time, so more like an hour and a half to charge - still very fast though, but not sure how that amount of power is coming from a mobile vehicle.


It's also certainly not 'the world's first all-electric aircraft' as the article states.

[trainfanM]

You’re correct that it’s not the world’s first electric aircraft, but the first purpose-built electric commuter aircraft. The article dropped that qualifier in a reference or two.

The range, speed, payload, and battery size were reduced from the prototype (v-tail) Alice introduced at the 2019 Paris Air show, but the figures above are for the current version.

— TFM

[murphyaa]

I've always wondered why electric aircraft don't go with a swappable power pack like portable power tools use. When I was a fueler at the airport, we used to discuss electric aircraft ("They're gonna take our jobs!1!"). I always thought it would be a faster turn around if there was a rack of precharged power packs somewhere. Some time during the turnaround, a "fueler" comes out and swaps out the used battery with a fully charged one and they can plug it into shore power to keep it topped up until departure. That way instead of a 2+ hour charge time, you get a 5-10 minute swap out.

[henryk]

And why not use a hydrogen cell instead of a battery?

[Isaac]

Like the first cars, it took a while to improve

Electric planes are just getting off the ground , technology will catch up with demand.

Replaceable battery packs are a good option


As for jobs, new ones will form.

Remember, they said the same during the end of horse and buggies era

Also, the car industry going electric will help battery development for planes as well.


Hydrogen, will never happen! I worked on alternatives fuels while in college in the 1970s . Other than research, no one wanted it

Isaac

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by henryk

And why not use a hydrogen cell instead of a battery?

At current technology, batteries trump fuel cells at power / (weight or volume). It's hard to store/transport hydrogen safely, inexpensively and efficiently: compressing or liquefying steal lots of energy, high-pressure/cryogenic tanks are either heavy or leaky, adsorption and hydrides have not yet proved feasible, and so on.
Thirty years ago, the future of fuel cells seemed brighter than batteries, but lithium changed that. Of course, much like lithium-ion was a huge leap ahead of lead-acid, some breakthrough could make fuel cells attractive again.

[Siwi]

Hydrogen certainly doesn't have the best PR either after some unfortunate incidents with airships back in the 1930s.



From my experience with an EV, something aircraft are going to have issues with is that the efficiency and therefore range diminishes with temperature because there's more resistance in the circuits (the car has been known to 'charge' by a few percent when parked in the morning as it heats up). I estimate I get about 1% less from the battery with every degree celsius colder, and that's before using ancilleries (ie the heater and AC). The car does have a battery heater and coolant to protect it, but they use up power so it might be a false economy to keep a battery at 20 deg when flying at altitude and it's well into the minus outside.

[trainfanM]

Eviation has posted the full Livestream recording of Alice’s first test flight.

Livestream of First Flight of Eviation’s All-Electric Alice Aircraft - YouTube

Time markers:
29:40 - Takeoff
37:53 - Landing
1:24:54 - Press Announcement (with audio)

— TFM

[Pixelpusher]

Great subject. Thank you for posting the link TrainfamM :D