The world’s first all-electric commercial plane made its maiden test flight on Tuesday, taking to the skies above Richmond, Canada, in what is hoped will be a major step towards regular flights on electric-powered aircraft.
The flight was operated by Vancouver-based Harbour Air Seaplanes, using a six-passenger DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver retrofitted with a 750-horsepower electric motor made by US manufacturer magniX.
“It went flawlessly,” Roei Ganzarski, CEO of magniX, told AFP. “Everything we could have expected and dreamed of of a first electric aircraft happened.”
Though the short test flight lasted just 15 minutes, it was enough to show that electric-powered aircraft have a future in commercial aviation, said Ganzarski.
“This proves that commercial aviation in an all-electric form can work,” he said.