Ampaire flies longest
hybrid-electric mission ever
By
24 July 2022
Electric EEL aircraft shows the real-world capability of
hybrid-electric upgrades
Ampaire Electric EEL arrives at Oshkosh
The Ampaire
hybrid-electric EEL demonstrator aircraft today completed a 1,880 statute mile
mission from Los Angeles to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where it will be on display at
EAA AirVenture’s most prominent location—Boeing Plaza.
The journey
included the single longest nonstop flight ever made by a hybrid-electric
aircraft—1,135 miles.
Ampaire test
pilot Elliot Seguin took off from Camarillo Airport on Wednesday afternoon,
July 20 to reposition to Mojave Airport in California (85 miles) in order to
avoid the potential for early morning fog the next morning. On Thursday, he
flew the 1,135 miles from Mojave to Hays, Kansas. The next morning, July 22, he
completed the trip, flying 660 miles to Oshkosh’s Wittman Regional Airport.
The EEL
demonstrated fuel savings of up to 40 percent versus a standard Cessna
Skymaster, on which it is based. The EEL is a parallel hybrid, with one
conventional combustion engine and an independent electric drivetrain.
Optimized hybrid electric aircraft can demonstrate substantially higher fuel
savings and emissions reductions.
“By the time
the EEL returns to California it will have flown more miles than any
hybrid-electric aircraft, over 15,000, including airline demonstration flights
in Hawaii and the UK. It is flying with great reliability and demonstrating the
workhorse nature of hybrid-electric aircraft,” noted Dr Susan Ying,
Ampaire’s SVP of Global Partnerships.
“We are
taking the technology and expertise developed with the electrical EEL and
applying it to our first commercial product, the hybrid-electric nine-seat Eco
Caravan regional aircraft, which will make its first flight later this year.
That aircraft will demonstrate fuel savings up to 70 percent and emissions
reductions up to 100 percent when using sustainable aviation fuel.”
Ampaire is
moving rapidly to bring the benefits of electrification to aviation markets,
starting with the Eco Caravan and scaling its technology to larger regional
aircraft.
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