World's Largest All Electric Commercial Plane Makes Historic Maiden Flight

World's largest all-electric commercial aircraft took its maiden flight recently at the Grant County International Airport (KMWH) in Moses Lake, Washington. The completely emission free flight marks a new milestone in the world of electric aviation that has been daunted with considerable emissions in its entire history.

MagniX and AeroTEC together flew their all-electric Cessna Grand Caravan 208B all-electric aircraft at the latter¡¯s Flight Test Center. The test flight lasted for a total of 30 minutes.

For those unaware, MagniX is a firm focussed on enabling completely electric flights in the air while AeroTEC is a leading independent company for aerospace testing, engineering and certification.

The successful maiden flight of the eCaravan was powered by magniX¡¯s 750-horsepower (560 kW) magni500 propulsion system. The test flight comes as the next major milestone, after MagniX tested its all-electric motor at its Arundel facility last year. At the time, Chief executive officer Roei Ganzarski had mentioned that the electric propulsion will empower an aircraft to fly nine to 15 passengers between 100 to 1,000 miles in range.

All Electric Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (Image: MagniX)

After testing it in a plane for the first time, Ganzarski says ¡°These electric commercial aircraft will enable the offering of flying services of people and packages in a way previously not possible."

It is easy to see this to be true. Once established as a trusted mode of empowering flights in the air, MagniX's propulsion system can enable the operation of such ¡°middle-mile aircraft at a fraction of the cost, with zero emissions, from and to smaller airports,¡± says Ganzarski.

Hence the natural selection for the testing was ¡°the iconic Caravan,¡± a mover of people and cargo over short distances for decades. Tweaking such a plane to have an all electric propulsion also points to the possibility of the propulsion system that can be retrofitted to most commonly used airplanes, a goal that the company aims to achieve by 2022.

All Electric Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (Image: MagniX)

The recent testing was a new feat for AeroTEC too. "There's no roadmap for testing and certifying electric aircraft ¨C this is a new frontier and AeroTEC is on the front lines developing the processes and best practices," said Lee Human, President and CEO of AeroTEC.

The only restrictive element in the pursuit of such all electric flights is the limited battery backup possible by the current battery technology. As and when the battery technology develops to provide more juice to electric motors, such propulsion systems can be used for even longer flights and larger airplanes in the air!

Prior to this flight, MagniX, along with Harbour Air, was responsible for the world¡¯s first all electric seaplane that took flight in Vancouver, Canada back in December last year. The short test flight was conducted in a six-passenger seaplane that used an electric motor in place of the regular IC engine used in aircrafts. The two firms had announced a partnership for pursuing all electric aircrafts in March last year.