ELECTRIC DREAMS

SHORT-HAUL ELECTRIC AVIATION WILL BE MAINSTREAM WITHIN THE NEXT 10 YEARS. BUT MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS ARE STILL NEEDED BEFORE LONG-DISTANCE FLYING IS EMISSIONS-FREE

words > HARRIET HIRSCHLER

Picture yourself flying from Velana International Airport in the Maldives to a luxurious island resort in a location as remote as it is beautiful. Below you is one of the most breathtaking but ecologically fragile places in the world – its very existence threatened by rising sea levels caused by CO2 emissions. Your flight will not be contributing, however, because you are onboard a seaplane powered by clean electricity.

“It is short hops like these that are the most obvious and immediate targets for scaling up electric flight,” says Clive Jackson, Founder and Chairman of Victor. “Major breakthroughs in electric propulsion mean it is now possible to retrofit existing planes, opening the skies to a new era of battery-powered transportation.”

THE RETROFIT REVOLUTION In an effort to reduce emissions, various airlines are seeking an alternative for their fossil fuel aircraft, removing expensive polluting jet fuel from the flight equation and replacing it with electric batteries. Thanks to retrofitting, the electrification of planes is now underway.

“Everything in aerospace starts with propulsion,” says Roie Ganzarski, CEO of magniX, which in December 2019 provided the propulsion system for the world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft, a six-seater Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver. In May 2020, magniX successfully flew the largest all-electric commercial aircraft, a nine-seater Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. “The jet age of aviation happened

because of the jet engine, not the jet airplane,” he continues. “You think of the Wright brothers, they took a glider and put an engine on it; it was a retrofit. And so, when we started we knew, first of all, we have to do electric propulsion because without the propulsion, new airplanes couldn’t be created.”

The parallels between the electric flight and electric vehicle revolutions are easy to draw – Tesla converted a Lotus Elise to electric with their own electric motor and off-the-shelf batteries to test their idea – but Ganzarski believes the business case is far greater when it comes to aviation. “As a private individual, for me to retrofit my car, it’s not very practical. From a corporate airline perspective, they don’t want to wait until a new plane is developed. They also don’t want to pay for a new plane because they’re happy with their existing ones. If they can retrofit them to electric, they get the best of both worlds.” The pay-off for airlines is zero emissions, lower noise and lower costs, all without having to wait or make the large investment in purpose-built electric planes. The downside to retrofitting is you get much less performance: a nine-passenger retrofitted Caravan only has a range of about 100 miles, whereas the newly designed nine-passenger Eviation Alice – the world’s first custom-built allelectric commuter aircraft – can do 500 miles.

But Jackson argues retrofitting gas-guzzling planes is a great place to start “because it’s faster, quicker and easier”. And it’s at this level of innovation that he wants to see investment by multiple parties.

“One looks at the type of aircraft, or the type of mission, that would suit conversion – and that is short-range hops between charging stations,” explains Jackson, returning to the Maldives example. “When the short-range hops between charging stations are in areas that are already at risk from climate change, it becomes a double benefit.”

NEW ALL-ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT “The pros and cons of new aircraft and retrofitted planes are performance versus cost and time,” says Ganzarski.

Still, the wait for new all-electric aircraft may not be that long. “We’re not talking about 10 years or 20 years away,” says Ganzarski. “Within the next 5 years, you’re going to be seeing multiple new aircraft propelled by magniX already starting to fly, both in the US and in Europe,” he says. “Within 10 years, you’re going to see hundreds of these flying around.”

Eviation aims to have its Alice aircraft, propelled by magniX, airborne by the end of 2021. “We’ll be certified and ready to start taking people and packages in 2024. DHL, for example, has already ordered them because they know that when this thing takes off, pun intended, it’s going to be too late. And so a lot of these customers are already getting in line now to get the orders ahead of time.”

Charging time takes around 30 minutes, roughly the same time it takes to put fuel into a similar-sized traditional airplane. The only caveat, Ganzarski points out, is the current range of such an aircraft. “It’s a 500-mile range, so you’re not going to fly London to New York or London to Bahamas on this aircraft,” he says. “But London to Paris; London to Amsterdam; London to Nice; Paris to Geneva; these are all flights today that expensive jets do.”

The business potential for small electric passenger aircraft is clear and Ganzarski believes an aircraft like Alice will be an exciting proposition for operators, particularly in this great sustainability reset. “Passengers, boards

Everything in aerospace starts with propulsion. We have to do electric propulsion because without the propulsion, new airplanes couldn’t be created

of directors and companies will no longer accept fuel-based flying when there’s an alternative,” he says. “Up until now, there hasn’t been an alternative, but now there’s going to be one they won’t accept the old ways. For example, in France, they’ve already passed a law that bans domestic flights when there’s a rail alternative.”

The experience for flyers will not only be elevated by the knowledge that they are travelling emissionsfree. “The experience starts way before the air. It actually starts with your booking,” says Ganzarski. “A nine-passenger turboprop costs about $1,800 to $2,000 an hour; a small jet that can take six to nine passengers costs anywhere between $2,000 to $5,000 an hour to operate. The Alice will cost $400 to operate an hour. And so to that end, you’ll feel that difference already when you’re booking through significantly lower prices.”

On top of this, the Alice will be 20 decibels quieter, with less vibrations from an electric motor and large windows for enjoying the view, and of course no off-putting smell of Jet A fuel burning when you board.

CHALLENGES AHEAD Now that companies like magniX have solved propulsion, and Eviation have solved aircraft design, the next challenge is energy source. “Batteries and even fuel cells are not as good as fuel,” admits Ganzarski. “In fact, they never will be. You’ll never get the max range of an electric plane battery or fuel cell that you will get out of a fuel-based plane.”

Previous page The exterior and interior of Eviation Alice, the world’s first all-electric commuter aircraft This page, clockwise from left Harbour Air CEO Greg McDougall and magniX CEO Roei Ganzarski; The Harbour Air ePlane takes to the skies; The magniX eCaravan, a modified Cessna 208B Caravan

Currently, to power a 737-sized jet with electricity would require a battery the size of the plane itself, making take-off virtually impossible.

But Ganzarski believes that asking if electric planes can match traditional aircraft in every situation is not the right question. “A Phenom 300 might be able to fly 1,000 miles non-stop, as opposed to an Alice that can only do 500 miles, but does anyone fly a Phenom 300 for 1,000 miles non-stop? Most business aviation flights in Europe are less than an hour or so. Who cares that I could do 1,000 miles if I’m only flying 200 or 300 miles. Really the question that has to be asked is: ‘Is it good enough?’”

The pandemic might have given individuals and corporations pause for thought in regards to curbing the amount of flights they take, but the commercial airline industry is beginning to bounce back – and there has been a boom in the private aviation sector, given its new-found convenience and perceived lower health risks.

“It’s one of the most basic inherited human rights to aspire to a better life for yourself and your family,” Jackson says. “And part of that is exploration for business, leisure and for enjoyment – and that is travel. Victor is looking forward to welcoming the first generation of electric aircraft into its market as soon as it comes online.”

With trips under 100 miles accounting for 5 per cent of global flights, and nearly half of all commercial air travel less than 500 miles in range, the electric alternative certainly seems ‘good enough’ to start scaling up. 1903 The Wright brothers make the first manned, powered, controlled flight, and inaugurated the aerial age.

1927 Charles Lindbergh completes the first solo non-stop transAtlantic flight, travelling from New York to Paris, France.

1930 British inventor Frank Whittle obtains his first patent for a turbo-jet engine.

1939 The Heinkel He 178 was the world’s first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, and the first practical jet aircraft.

1947 Chuck Yeager pilots the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in level flight.

1969 The Tupolev Tu-144 and Concorde prototypes make their maiden flights, ushering in an era of supersonic travel.

1970 The first 747, a four-engine long-range airliner, flew its first commercial flight with Pan American World Airways.

1986 Rutan Voyager completes the first non-stop flight around the globe on one load of fuel.

2016 The first round-the-world solar powered flight is completed successfully.

2019 The Harbour Air ePlane, the world’s first fully-electric aircraft for commercial flight completes a test in Canada.

Flight path

The evolution of human fight