Flight International - 04

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Prototype made an 8min debut
sortie on 27 September 2022
Eviation
Eviation close to
naming Alice suppliers
Pioneering electric aircraft developer is on track to launch
certification campaign in 2025, with chief executive saying
its so-far lone flight has validated performance models
Jon Hemmerdinger Seattle
Several months after performing
the first flight of
its prototype Alice electric
aircraft, Eviation is working
to secure manufacturing partners
and additional funding, but r emains
on track to begin certification flight
testing in 2025.
That is according to chief executive
Gregory Davis, who is well
aware his company is in a market
crowded with other start-ups also
making bold promises.
“We want to be clear with our
customers, clear with our supply
chain and clear with the marketplace:
what we are doing is real,”
Davis tells FlightGlobal. “These are
certainly aggressive targets, but
we are being realistic.”
Based in Arlington, Washington,
Eviation holds the distinction of
having already flown a clean-sheet,
fixed-wing electric aircraft that, in
most regards, looks and flies like
other commuter types. Importantly,
Alice, sitting in the regional air
mobility segment, will operate from
traditional airports using existing
air traffic infrastructure, Davis says.
By contrast, the electric air taxis in
development for urban air mobility
operations may require new certification
and air traffic control
standards, as well as new operating
infrastructure, including ‘vertiports’.
“We’ve designed our aircraft so
that it can operate inside all of these
existing regulations, from certification
through operations, through
airspace and airports,” Davis said
during the Pacific Northwest Aerospace
Alliance’s annual event near
Seattle on 9 February.
At the same conference, AeroDynamic
Advisory managing director
Kevin Michaels agreed that for an
aircraft like Alice, “using the existing
air traffic management system has
the best chance to succeed”.
Within range
Alice is to carry nine passengers
(the regulatory limit for singlepiloted
aircraft), fly at speeds up to
260kt (482km/h) and have about
250nm (463km) of range in visual
flight conditions, plus an additional
30min of reserve flight time. Power
will come from twin Magnix 700kW
Magni650 motors.
Davis estimates Alice’s certification
programme, which will involve
three test aircraft, will start
in 2025 and last 18-20 months,
putting Eviation on track to make
deliveries from 2027. During the
flight-test campaign, the company
plans to begin building its first production-conforming
aircraft.
Much uncertainty remains, including
the difficulty of achieving
US Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) certification for such a
unique aircraft. The FAA stepped
up its scrutiny following two Boeing
737 Max crashes, leading companies
like Boeing and Gulfstream to
delay certification timelines.
But Davis, who took over from
former Eviation chief executive
Omer Bar-Yohay last year, predicts
Alice will progress relatively
smoothly through the FAA’s review.
Eviation will seek Alice’s certification
as a commuter type under
the FAA’s existing Part 23 regulations,
which apply to aircraft with
maximum take-off weights up to
8,610kg (19,000lb), he says. Alice
will come in at 8,340kg.
Similarly, Magnix intends to
certificate the aircraft’s powerplants
under FAA Part 33 airworthiness
standards for aircraft engines
– “which is an advantage for us,
because then… it’s just an engine,
and it doesn’t matter if it’s electric
or not electric”, Davis says.
Eviation’s Alice prototype took
off for the first time on 27 September
2022, from Moses Lake’s Grant
Eviation
32 Flight International April 2023