New technology from Good Old Europe — an Overview of the Latest Developments in Electric Aviation Europe

22 Apr 2017
11:45 - 12:15

New technology from Good Old Europe — an Overview of the Latest Developments in Electric Aviation Europe

Willi Tacke, the Founder and Program Chair for e-Flight Expo

2017 has been a tremendous year for the development of electric propulsion systems for Aircraft and on demand air mobility vehicles.

  • In conventional e-aircraft there was the first 2 aerobatic aircraft we had electric Trainers getting in operations in Switzerland soon, we had several world record with electric planes and the world first glider tow with an e-aircraft (climb with glider 9.5 m/sec = 1800 Ft/min).
  • There has been made the first manned flight with a electric helicopter and e-Volo continued their manned test flights under a permit to fly.
  • We started the e-flight-expo the largest exhibition for  electric aircraft in 2009 in 2017 it has grown so big that we had to move from the entrance hall to a full exhibition hall.
  • In 2017 the world first e-flight-show proved that electric aircraft are usable already now.
  • Highlights on the show where 4 electric aerobatic planes, several electric trainers, the worlds first Hybrid electric driven amphibian plane. Volocopter presented their latest model the 2X, A Gyrocopter which has electric drives for his wheels for driving on the ground  – which even received the road certification so that now they land on the airfield and drive down to the next restaurant downtown. System will work with other rotor wing as well. And several component manufacturers showed e-motors batteries and controlers for a silent future. Interesting as well – there are some Chinese/European cooperation’s on the way to electric aircraft.
  • The European Gama-Epic meeting as part of the show brought all the players together on a table to discuss future legislations as well as technical development in e-flight-future from nowadays electric aircraft to the future on demand mobility in the air.

Also on the Operations side there are some news:

  • In Switzerland they got the permission to open a network of 10 airfields with charging station solar panels and 10 electric training airfields for starting an electric training network.
  • In Norway the government presented a white paper which has the goal to let Norway to become one of the leading states in developing electric manned aviation
  • So you see worth to keep an eye on good old Europe’s e-development.