Industry Ampaire performs longest electrical aircraft flight

Ampaire, a pioneer company in the electric aviation industry, has successfully performed the longest flight with an electrical aircraft to date. The hybrid-electric propulsion system powered Electric EEL, a six-seat Cessna 337, took off from Camarillo Airport in California at 12:20 PM.

After two hours and 32 minutes, the crew around test pilot Justin Gillen and flight test engineer Russell Newman, safely landed at Hayward Executive Airport, having flown a distance of 314 statute miles.

Average speed during the flight was around 135 mph and the crew flew up California´s central Valley at 8,500 feet. Straight line distance between the airports was 292 statute miles. “The mission was a quite normal cross-country flight that we could imagine electrified aircraft making every day just a few years from now,” Gillen commented.

Ampaire General Manager Doug Shane said: “The ability to put innovative electric technologies into the air rapidly in order to assess and refine them is central to Ampaire’s strategy to introduce low-emissions aircraft for regional airlines and charter operators within just a few years.”

“Our success in taking this aircraft in a short period from the test environment to the normal, everyday operating environment is a testament to our development and test organization, and to the systems maturity we have achieved with our second aircraft,” Shane concluded.

Ampaire´s second Electric EEL test aircraft only performed four weeks of flight testing in the Camarillo area, before achieving this milestone in electric aviation. The aircraft performed its maiden flight on September 10th and has since then performed over 30 flight hours.

Later this year, the EEL aircraft will take part in several demonstration flights with Hawaii based Mokulele Airlines on short-haul routes. Ampaire hopes to gain new important information and insights in order to define the required infrastructure for regular passenger operations with electrical aircraft.

Ampaire is Los Angeles-based aviation company that has focussed on the electrical aviation branch. The company is retrofitting passenger aircraft to electric power and fley the largest hybrid electric aircraft at the time in May 2019.