Earlier today, the world’s largest all-electric commercial aircraft successfully completed its first test flight—and it is being hailed as a significant milestone in disrupting the transportation industry and accelerating the electric aviation revolution.
The all-electric Cessna Grand Caravan 208B was designed by electric aviation company magniX in partnership with AeroTEC, a leading independent company focused on aerospace testing, engineering and certification.
The successful flight of the 9-passenger eCaravan, magnified by a 750-horsepower (560 kW) magni500 propulsion system, took place at the AeroTEC Flight Test Center at the Grant County International Airport (KMWH) in Moses Lake, Washington this morning.
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“The iconic Caravan has been a workhorse of industry moving people and transporting goods on short routes for decades,” said magnix CEO Roei Ganzarski. “This first flight of the eCaravan is yet another step on the road to operating these middle-mile aircraft at a fraction of the cost, with zero emissions, from and to smaller airports. These electric commercial aircraft will enable the offering of flying services of people and packages in a way previously not possible.”
Although the eCaravan is being hailed as the largest all-electric commercial aircraft, magniX was also responsible for launching the world’s first all-electric commercial aircraft back in December 2019.
Now, the flying of the eCaravan serves as another critical step in the certification and approval process of the magni500 propulsion system, enabling future conversions of additional aircraft to magniX’s all-electric propulsion technology.
“I’m proud of the pioneering work performed by our engineers, technicians and flight test team,” said Lee Human, President and CEO of AeroTEC. “There’s no roadmap for testing and certifying electric aircraft—this is a new frontier and AeroTEC is on the front lines developing the processes and best practices that will pave the way for electric aviation.”
The historic flight was captured via livestream and watched by social media users around the world.
(WATCH the livestreamed flight footage below)
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