AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2021 - 86

Wisk Aero
2 trainer and $627,000 eFlyer 4 four-seater
under new FAR Part 23, Amendment 64
rules, which allow day and night VFR operations.
Bye reports more than 726 purchase
deposits split between the two designs, giving
it a realistic chance at being the first U.S.
manufacturer to put electrically powered
lightplanes in widespread service.
In early 2021, Bye introduced yet
another design, the eight-seat eFlyer 800,
which will have twin, wing-mounted
engines, a cruise speed of 320 knots, and a
range of 500 nm. Bye says the eFlyer 800
will have an autoland system, optional
solar cells, and, like the other eFlyers, a
full-airplane emergency parachute system.
Launch customer for the eFlyer 800
will be fractional ownership sister companies
Jet It and Jet Club, which Bye said had
signed purchase agreements for a " fleet " of
eFlyer 800s and made purchase deposits
for " a number " of eFlyer 4s.
Pipistrel, a Slovenian company
with a heavy emphasis on research and
Ampaire EEL
development in electrically powered aircraft,
continued to make news when its
two-seat Velis Electro earned its EASA
day/night VFR type certification that
also allows intentional spins. Pipistrel
says that an earlier two-seat design-the
Alpha Electro-meets ASTM light sport
aircraft standards, is approved for use in
training in several nations, has applied for
EASA certification, and that the company
is working with the FAA on an exemption
to allow pilot training in the United States.
Pipistrel is also developing its Nuuva
V300, an autonomous, hybrid/electrically
powered drone capable of hauling cargo
loads of up to 1,000 pounds.
Flight Design introduced its new F2
series of LSA and Part 23 airplanes, and
revealed plans for its F2e-an F2 powered
by a Rolls-Royce electric motor. The
F2e is in flight testing and EASA certification
is expected in 2022. Flight Design
says that as soon as a United States certification
path is established for electrically
powered aircraft, it'll move ahead to bring
the F2e to these shores.
Another conventional-configuration
twin-engine electric airplane, the
Eviation Alice, has had to change course
after an electrical fire during ground charging
destroyed the original prototype. (A
ground fire also damaged a Lilium Jet.)
The latest version of the Alice has aft-fuselage-mounted
engines, relocated from the
first prototype's wingtip mountings. The
Alice is being marketed as a nine-passenger
commuter airplane, and Eviation lists
a maximum cruise speed of 220 knots,
maximum range of 440 nm, a maximum
payload of 2,500 pounds, and a ceiling of
32,000 feet.
Still other examples include legacy airplanes
such as the de Havilland DHC-2
Beaver, fitted out with electric propulsion
systems. That's what Harbour Air
Seaplanes, a Vancouver-based airline,
is doing in a partnership with MagniX,
maker of a 560 kW/750-horsepower
Pipistrel Velis Electro
86
AOPA PILOT / September 2021
AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2021

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