Maiden flight of electric sports plane

[adzze]

Sonex Aircraft's electric sports plane makes successful maiden flight

From GizMag www.gizmag.com/sonex-aircraft-electric-sports-plane-maiden-flight/17341/

Sonex Aircraft’s proof-of-concept electric-powered Waiex sports aircraft has successfully completed its maiden flight. The flight earlier this month follows four years of development of the aircraft, with the data to be used to determine if any firmware adjustments are needed before proceeding to full traffic pattern and extended-duration test flights.

The proof-of-concept N270DC aircraft used in the first test flight was a standard Waiex kit aircraft modified with the installation of E-Flight electric power components that include an E-Flight 54 kW brushless DC electric motor, E-Flight electronic motor controller, 14.5 kWh lithium polymer battery system, E-Flight battery management system, and E-Flight cockpit instrumentation and controls.

The maiden flight, which took place on December 3, 2010 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was piloted by Sonex founder John Monnett. The flight consisted of a short hop on runway 27 that was intended as a conservative non-pattern flight to break ground-effect and analyze in-flight system performance for the next step in the testing program.

I was wondering how long it would take for a viable electric plane to "get off the ground", as it were! ;D

[Bruce]

I wonder what the pilot meant by the comments afterwards?
I'd really like to build an electric aircraft... need to sort a finance plan first - marrying in to money sounds good!