Successful test flight for electric Alice

The new electric plane Alice, developed by US-Israeli start-up company Eviation, has made a successful first test flight at Moses Lake in the US. Never before has a newly designed electric plane of this size taken off and landed safely.

The 17-metre-long Alice can seat up to nine passengers. The cruising speed is 407 kilometres per hour and the flight range just over 800 kilometres. To achieve that goal, Alice takes almost 4,000 kilos of batteries on board.

Whether the estimated range of 800 kilometres can be met in practice, is not yet known. According to FlyingMag, the plane was in the air for just under nine minutes during the first flight, flying circles above the airport.

Until now, a converted Cessna 208B Grand Caravan was the largest electric passenger plane. That electric plane flew for the first time in 2020 and is a few meters shorter. Unlike the Alice, the converted Cessna is not a newly designed aircraft.

Eviation hopes to deliver the first planes to the market within three to five years, depending on how the further development and certification process goes. The first customers for the Alice are Cape Air, GlobalX and DHL Express. DHL plans to use the cargo version of Alice to deliver parcels.