The Airbus E-Fan demonstrator twin-engine electric plane has successfully crossed the English Channel, the company reported, thereby apparently becoming the first battery-powered electric plane to take off, cross the channel, and land under its own power. The 74-km flight took place Friday about 106* years after Louis Blériot’s flight across the channel, accomplished using a 19-kW three-cylinder air-cooled fan-style radial piston engine.
In contrast, E-Fan derives its 60-kW total engine power from 120 lithium polymer cells having a 207-Wh/kg energy density per cell. Blériot’s plane achieved a top speed of 75.6 km/h; E-Fan can reach 220 km/h.
Airbus reports that the E-Fan flight required the development of a dedicated test and verification program in conjunction with French flight authorities. “That is something which may not have been necessary 100 years ago, when Blériot’s flight was just a race to be first,” said Jean Botti, Airbus Group chief technical officer. “But today, following rules and obtaining certifications is of crucial importance for the future of safe, reliable and certifiable electric flight.”
Hours before E-Fan’s trip, French pilot Hugues Duval in his electric Cri Cri plane crossed the channel, but the Cri Cri reportedly had help from another aircraft to get airborne.
Airbus reports it is working on E-Fan 2.0, a two-seat model aimed at pilot training, and E-Fan 4.0, a four-seat model for the general aviation market. The company says it will begin work on an assembly line in Pau, France, in 2016.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the University of Cambridge is working with Boeing on a single-seat hybrid-electric plane, which augments the electric motor with a piston engine.
The Journal quotes Airbus’s Botti as saying the company envisions 100-passenger regional hybrid planes that would take off and land using electric engines with a biofuel-powered motor taking over in flight.
Interest in electric and hybrid flight is being spurred on by expectations that the EPA will begin regulating aircraft carbon emissions in 2017. The Journal reports, “The airline industry has committed itself to achieving carbon-neutral growth by 2020, and, by 2050, to reduce its emissions to 2005 levels.”
In addition, NASA is working with Cape Air, based in Hyannis, MA, on a nine-passenger aircraft to replace its fleet of aging Cessna aircraft, according to Mark Moore, principal investigator for NASA’s experimental electric propulsion aircraft project. The Journal quotes Moore as saying Cape Air “…doesn’t ‘need any more range than current batteries provide,’ as its longest flight is 220 nautical miles.”
This week’s electric plane activity follows on the heels of the solar powered plane Solar Impulse 2 completing a journey from Japan to Hawaii in one leg of an attempted around-the-world flight that began in Abu Dhabi March 9 and is expected to take more than five months, as reported by CBS News.
*Corrected from original post.
