Electric Aircraft

NASA has released three concept art images showing its X-57 Maxwell all-electric X-plane in its final configuration. The X-57 is shown in its Mod IV form, which includes 5-ft diameter wingtip propellers to recover energy from wingtip vortices.

Back in January, China's EHang aced the first flight in the US of its two-seat autonomous air taxi. Now the company has agreed to develop the first Urban Air Mobility pilot program in Seville, Spain.

As is the case with electric cars, battery range is still very much an issue with pure-electric aircraft. Hybrid propeller-drive systems are perhaps a better way to go – for now – and a new one was recently the subject of a successful test flight.

DLR and Bauhaus Luftfahrt are studying how to make electric commuter aircraft practical. The CoCoRe project is using the example of a 19-seat hybrid-electric commuter aircraft to learn about the economics and environmental impact of the technology.

As part of plans to establish a flying taxi service in the region, and ultimately across the world, Volocopter has joined with ridesharing company Grab on a new feasibility study to uncover high-potential routes between megacities in Southeast Asia.

A super-endurance unmanned aircraft built for year-long flights has completed its maiden run. Built by BAE Systems subsidiary Prismatic, the PHASA-35 took to the air over the Woomera Test Range in Australia for its first fully-integrated flight test.

Hyundai has used the grand platform of CES 2020 to unveil its take on the future of urban mobility. At the heart of its plans is its S-A1, an electric flying taxi developed with Uber.

Aviation company Lilium is pushing ahead with testing of its all-electric jet, with the latest footage to emerge from the German startup showing the aircraft pulling off a few new moves across a three-minute test flight.

Roll-Royce has unveiled what it hopes will be the world's fastest all-electric aircraft. At Gloucestershire Airport in England, the company presented the single-passenger, zero-emissions ACCEL project plane that is targeting a top speed over 300 mph.

The world's first successful flight of an all-electric commercial aircraft was completed today as a modified six-passenger DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver took to the skies over British Columbia.

Cranfield Aerospace has received a £9-million (US$11.6-million) grant to convert a Britten-Norman (B-N) Islander into a hybrid-electric aircraft using an environmentally friendly propulsion kit that can be retrofitted.

Airbus-backed Air Race E notes that the future of aviation is electric, and plans to stage the first all-electric air race in 2020. Its first airplane, dubbed White Lightning, was revealed on day one of the Dubai Airshow.