After years of on-the-ground development, Eviation Alice electric airplane quietly took to the air here this morning for its first test flight.
Test pilot Steve Crane guided the nine-passenger aircraft, powered by two 640-kilowatt electric motors, through its takeoff from Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, a facility in Eastern Washington’s high desert that’s often used for testing innovations in aviation.
When the motors revved up, they sounded like electric grass trimmers. And when the plane flew overhead, the noise was more like a hum than a roar.
Alice flew for eight minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 3,500 feet before landing safely back at the airport.
So how was the ride? “It was wonderful,” Crane said. “It handled just like we thought it would. Very responsive, very quick to the throttle, and it came on in for a wonderful landing. I couldn’t be happier.”
Crane explained that the relatively short flight was intended to be the first in a series of “baby steps” for the test program. “Today was just about the initial envelope,” he told reporters. “For future tests, we’ll expand that envelope.”
The Alice is a prototype of what will eventually be a passenger plane capable of carrying around 2,500 pounds total, which equates to nine people and their luggage (just don’t pack any bricks). It’s powered by a pair of MagniX engines — that company just scooped up $74 million from NASA to develop more of them — and a hefty battery system from AVL. It has a max air speed of about 260 knots.
“Electric aviation opens up more opportunities to connect communities where noise concerns have been a deterrent to flights, and restrict operating hours,” Davis said.
As for passengers, we’ll see how the new transport network plays out — maybe you’ll land and get straight into a robotaxi by the time Eviation is flying in your neck of the woods. It should also be a quieter ride on the inside, though don’t expect total silence.
Davis acknowledged that the design specifications and capabilities of the production version of the plane may be something of a moving target, due to Eviation’s dependence on improvements in battery technology. “It’s going to be carbon fiber, it’s going to be fly-by-wire, it’s going to be electric — so in that respect, it’s the same plane,” Davis said. “As far as the actual design of the aircraft, I think everything’s going to be evolved.”
The company has been putting its flight-ready prototype through more than a year of assembly and ground testing — with some setbacks along the way.
If all goes according to plan, the airplane will win certification from the Federal Aviation Administration and hit the market by 2027 — which is later than the 2024 time frame that Eviation was listing a year ago.
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