Kit Plane Manufacturer Plans Electric Option for Its Four-Place Sport Craft

Van’s Aircraft has teamed with magniX to re-power its popular RV-10 with a 235-shp electric powerplant. Test flights are expected to begin in late 2026.

Lee Goldberg

Related To:

Electronic Design

Oct. 19, 2026

2 min read

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What you'll learn:

Vans Aircraft will be testing an electrified version of its popular RV-10, a high-performance, four-place kit aircraft.
The MagniAIR powerplant, manufactured by magniX, weighs 121 pounds and produces a peak rated power of 235 shaft horsepower.
Initial flight testing is expected to begin in late 2026.

A Van’s Aircraft RV-10 is destined to be retrofitted with a magniX 175-kW electric motor, inverter, and battery system that’s able to generate a peak output of 235 shaft horsepower.

magniX has begun taking orders for its MagniAIR electric aircraft powertrain and plans to demonstrate its capabilities in a Van’s RV-10, a high-performance four-place aircraft, later this year. As reported briefly in our July story about electric aviation at the Sun ‘n Fun airshow, magniX developed the powerplant as a cost-effective alternative to 200- to 235-hp ICE motors. These include the Lycoming IO-390 or IO-540 series of piston engines that are widely used by many types of general aviation aircraft.

Although magniX had a prototype of the electrified RV-10 aircraft on display at the airshow, it was very reluctant to share many details about the conversion or the MagniAIR powerplant that would power it. The bit of news coming from the company was that expected the plane to make its first flight later this year.

Additional details emerged in a recent feature, published in the Airline Pilots and Owners Association’s (AOPA) newsletter. AOPA correspondent Sarah Deener reports that the air-cooled motor weighs 121 pounds, produces a peak rated power of 235 shaft horsepower (shp), and has a continuous rated power of 130 kW/174 shp. magniX expects a service ceiling of 18,000 feet, operating temperatures from minus 40 to 122°F, and a time between overhauls of 5,000 hours.

About the Author

Lee Goldberg

Contributing Editor

Lee is the author of the popular PowerBites series.

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.