Aircraft

Electric Alice plane tears down the runway in high-speed taxi test

Alice on the runway
Eviation
Alice on the runway
Eviation

Israeli startup Eviation introduced its all electric aircraft Alice at the Paris Air Show in 2019, and has been edging toward its first flight ever since. The company has this week taken an important step toward this milestone, breezing through some high-speed testing on the runway.

Alice is a luxury electric plane that has undergone some design tweaks since we first looked at it. The current version uses a pair of 640-kW magniX motors mounted to either side of the fuselage, offering a range of 814 km (506 miles) and cruise speed of 407 km/h (253 mph). With a payload capacity of 1,130 kg (2,500 lb), there is space onboard for nine passengers and two crew.

This production version of the plane was revealed in June 2021, with the first flight originally expected to take place later that year. Things haven’t quite gone to plan, but the team is celebrating today with the plane humming down the runway during a successful high-speed taxi run.

This testing included a rotation test, in which the nose of the plane is pulled up off the tarmac in preparation for take-off. Things didn’t quite go that far, obviously, but the sight of Alice streaming down the runway and and progressing to this point will be a very welcome one for the company’s engineers and aviation enthusiasts alike.

“A great day for electric aviation. More to come from Alice soon!” the company tweeted.

There's no word yet on when exactly the first flight is expected to take place. You can checkout footage from the taxi testing in the tweet below.

Source: Eviation

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14 comments
Towerman
Excellent !!! Well done to the Alice team ! Electric flight is edging closer than ever to mainstream reality !!!
Ralf Biernacki
This is among the most promising---and elegant---electric aircraft projects in an overcrowded field. Unlike the majority made up of pipe dreams and investor milking schemes, this is likely to work, and is a RL machine, not a wishful rendering. IMHO, this is because it follows a traditional aircraft configuration, refined over more than a century of research and practice. Forget about the inefficient multirotors, box-wings, foldouts, tangles of outriggers, and other novelties---this plane was designed by an experienced aeronautic engineer, and it shows.
BogBeast
Nice looking thing, good range and it looks very likely to reach production.

Bit disappointed by the passenger count and payload (I assume the payload of 1,130 kg includes any passenger/crew)
Towerman
@Ralf
Yes i agree but you have the multirotor part all wrong, multirotors are the future of transport and are here to stay in a very revolutionary and profound way. You'll have to get used to it or get left behind
John Schubert
A range of 500 miles is extremely difficult to believe. Here's why: "1,000 pounds of jet fuel yields . . . about 14x more power than 1000 lbs of batteries."
What rabbit did they pull out of a hat to accomplish that? Or is this just another bubbly-optimistic press release?
https://jetpackaviation.com/the-state-of-battery-technology/#:~:text=Jet%20fuel%20has%20an%20energy,than%201000%20lbs%20of%20batteries.
jerryd
It is a very technically good design, far better than the first one with wingtip props and likely to be the first production commercial EV aircraft to be produced. Well done.
Kpar
Too bad they did not include audio for the test video.
BlueOak
Affectionately nicknamed “the slug”. Due to its saggy airframe cross-section and its speed capability. Cool they’ve gone straight for a larger 9 passenger capability rather than messing with a tiny single or couple person design.
Troublesh00ter
Beautiful aircraft! I look forward to its first flight.
martinwinlow
I don't want to poo-poo Eviation's efforts, here, but, for perspective, a Tesla Model S 100kWh battery weighs ~675kg. Given that Tesla's battery specific energy density is one of the best available *off-the-shelf*, and that the Alice's battery is ~900kWh, its battery must weigh in the region of 6T... and the MTOW of the aircraft is 7.5T. Given that 1T of that is occupants... see my problem?!