Alice, an electric airplane, successfully takes off from Washington's Grant County International Airport. The plane from Israeli company Eviation Aircraft made its maiden journey of 8 minutes at an altitude of 3,500 feet.
"This is history. We haven't seen a change in propulsion technology in aircraft since we switched from piston engines to turbine engines. It was the 1950s that you last saw a completely new technology like this come together," said Eviation president and CEO, Gregory Davis.
Alice has battery technology similar to that found in electric cars or cell phones. The battery can be recharged for 30 minutes.
The plane holds 9 passengers and can fly for an hour, about 440 nautical miles. Alice's maximum speed is 250 knots or 287 miles per hour, it still does not match the Boeing 737 which reaches 588 miles per hour.
Since its founding in 2015, Eviation has been developing Alice. The company hopes to use the information collected during the flight to review next steps.
Eviation plans to be able to deliver its planes to customers by 2027. But the company also warned that plans could change.
"We've actually generated, to be honest, terabytes of data with the data acquisition systems we have on board, so we're going to take a few weeks and review that to see how the aircraft performs against our models and analysis," Davis said. "From there, we'll understand what we need to do next".
Eviation also expects to develop FAA-certified aircraft by 2025 with a year or two of flight testing before delivery to customers. Three versions of the Alice are in the prototype stage, namely the commuter, executive and cargo-only versions.
The commuter can accommodate 9 passengers with two pilots and 850 pounds of cargo. On the executive plane has 6 passenger and cargo seats can carry up to a volume of 450 cubic feet.
