Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 19. April 25, 2025
- How good is the C929? Part 2. April 24, 2025
- Boeing First Quarter Results Update: China is 10% of the backlog, with 500 in “Unidentified” April 24, 2025
- Boeing First Quarter Results: Tariffs, Return flights, $10.55bn asset sale April 23, 2025
- RTX Q1 2025 Earnings: GTF Talk Takes A Back Seat To Tariffs April 22, 2025
UPDATED: All-electric Eviation Alice takes 1st flight
By Bryan Corliss
Sept. 27, 2022 © Leeham News: The battery-powered Eviation Alice has flown for the first time.
The nine-seat aircraft, powered by twin electric propeller motors assembled by Eviation’s sister company, magniX, rotated up and took off into a sky hazy from forest fires shortly after sunrise in the Pacific Time Zone, a little after 7 a.m.
After takeoff the plane banked to the right, circled for eight minutes around Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, then landed safely. The Alice reached an altitude of 3,500 feet.
The dawn flight was an important milestone for Eviation, magniX, and for battery-powered aircraft in general. The Alice appears to be the largest electric passenger aircraft to fly so far, larger than the two-seater Pipistrel Velis, which had its first test flight with passengers in Iceland last month. Tecnam and Rolls Royce teamed up to fly a four-seater P2010 with a hybrid electric engine in February.
Summary
- EIS is still years away, CEO says
- Eviation and magniX need batteries to get better
- Alice will evolve in interim
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 38. Piloting the VTOL
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 23, 2022, ©. Leeham News: Last week, we looked into the hardware needed for the Flight Control System (FCS) of the eVTOLs in development.
We could see the redundancy of the FCS had to be extensive as the tricky hover to forward flight transition demanded a full-time Fly By Wire concept with no direct mode backup.
Yet the FCS hardware demands are not the main problem of a safe eVTOL FCS. The pilot interaction is. Not because it’s tricky. Because every project does it their way.
Figure 1. Pilot flying the Joby S4 simulator. Source: Joby Aviation.
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Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 37. VTOL Flight Control.
By Bjorn Fehrm.
September 16, 2022, ©. Leeham News: We discussed one of the critical systems for an eVTOL over the last weeks, the battery system, its cells, and its management system.
Another critical system for a VTOL is its Flight Control System (the FCS).
Figure 1. The Honeywell UAM FBW (Fly By Wire) triple channel computer. Source: Honeywell.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 36. Battery Management.
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 9, 2022, ©. Leeham News: Over the last weeks, we have discussed the cells that make up the battery system for an eVTOL.
The battery system has 10,000 cells or more. All these must, on an individual level, be managed to ensure they operate inside their allowed values. The Battery Management System, BMS, has this responsibility. It’s one of the most critical safety systems in an eVTOL.
Figure 1. The Battery Management System and battery packs from EP Systems. Source: EP Systems.
ICAO report outlines steps to reduce aviation’s carbon output
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By BRYAN CORLISS
Sept. 5, 2022, © Leeham News: Saying the climate crisis now is at “Code Red for Humanity,” the UN-sponsored International Civil Aviation Organization is calling on nations and companies to increase their investments toward techniques and technologies that can reduce aviation’s climate impact.
It won’t be easy, ICAO said in its Environmental Report 2022, which was released in July.
The aviation industry will be one of the hardest to ween off carbon-based forms of energy, a recent report concluded.
“Scaling the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and other energy sources requires substantial investment and financial support from both fuel suppliers and governments on top of what would be needed for associated infrastructural changes,” the report said. “This is particularly important, considering that the drop-in fuels have the largest potential to reduce the overall emission from international aviation by 2050.”
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Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 35. Lilium battery cells.
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 2, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a summary of the article Part 35P, Lilium battery cells.
It discusses the requirement the Lilium jet principle puts on its battery cells and how this is solved, both with a slightly different cell type and with some operational adaptations.
Figure 1. The final Lilium VTOL configuration with 30 jets. Source: Lilium.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 35P. Lilium battery cells. The deeper discussion.
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September 2, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a complementary article to Part 35, Lilium battery cells. It discusses the requirement the Lilium jet principle puts on its battery cells and how this is solved, both with a modified cell type and with some operational adaptations.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 33P. eVTOL batteries. The deeper discussion.
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August 19, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a complementary article to Part 33, eVTOL batteries. It discusses the trickiest system on an eVTOL, the battery system.
While Lithium Ion batteries have come a long way since the electric flight ideas took off in 2015, the battery system is still the biggest challenge for eVTOL designers, not only for total energy content but for a range of parameters.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 33. eVTOL batteries.
August 19, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a summary of article Part 33P, eVTOL batteries. This article discusses the trickiest system on an eVTOL, the battery system.
The battery system supplies the energy to the VTOL, and given today’s and tomorrow’s battery technology; it’s a tight resource that needs a lot of pampering.
Figure 1. We use graphs in the Pipistrel spare parts catalog to show the battery system of the Pipistrel Velis Electro. Source: Pipistrel and Leeham Co.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 32. Mixed architectures, Part 2.
August 12, 2022, ©. Leeham News: Last week, we looked at two eVTOLs that don’t fit the terminology we use; Multicopters, Vectored thrust, or Lift and Cruise, the Vertical VX4, and the Archer Maker. We look at Airbus’ CityAirbus NG this week, a Lift and Cruise design like no other (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Airbus CityAirbus NG. Source: Airbus.