First-ever ePlane: Aircraft completes point-to-point flight purely on electricity

An aviation company completed the world's first air trip via an all-electric drivetrain, reported  New Atlas.

Harbour Air's retrofitted seaplane, De Havilland Beaver, took on a test flight from the Canadian mainland to Vancouver Island, showing that fuel-less flights were possible.

Harbour Air, which claims to transport nearly half a million people annually and is the largest seaplane airline in North America promised to develop the world's first electric aeroplane in 2019.

With this vision, they took seriously bold steps fitting electric propulsion systems in its six-seater planes.  

The company collaborated with MagniX, which is a company working dedicatedly to produce high-power electric motors. 

Toward the end of 2019,  the now-modified De Havilland Beaver flew as an all-electric commercial aircraft. Since that successful flight, the company has continued to test and aims to get certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transport Canada.

This time, the aircraft completed its first-ever point-to-point test flight.

It covered a distance of 72 kilometres entirely on electricity and took 24 minutes to complete the journey. Reportedly, abundant power was left in the plane after landing.

“I am excited to report that this historic flight on the ePlane went exactly as planned” said Kory Paul, Harbour Air’s Vice President of Flight Operations and one of the company’s test Pilots.