Paris Day Two: Air India finalizes earlier deals; Embraer, ATR announce orders


By Bryan Corliss

June 20, 2023, © Leeham News – While Monday’s news from the Paris Air Show was dominated by the one big Airbus order from Indian carrier IndiGo, Tuesday saw a host of smaller deals announced by OEMs, airlines and leasing companies. 

IndiGo rival Air India also announced it had finalized its massive 470-jet order from February, which it had split between Boeing and Airbus. 

While there was a significant volume of deals announced Tuesday, in many cases, they were formal announcements of deals that OEMs already were carrying on their order books.

  • Air India finalizes Boeing, Airbus orders
  • Boeing lands orders from airlines, lessors
  • Airbus reveals new orders and buyers in previous deals
  • Embraer and ATR announce first deals of show
  • Eviation announces LOI for Alices

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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

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Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 6P. Energy consumption, the deeper discussion.

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By Bjorn Fehrm

February 11, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a complementary article to Part 6. Energy consumption. It uses the Aircraft Performance Model from our Consultancy practice to generate energy consumed data when we fly a typical airline mission for the first aircraft we analyze, the battery-based Eviation Alice and Heart Aerospace ES-19.

These represent what to expect for airliners that have chosen this energy storage principle.

Heart Aerospace ES-19. Source: Heart Aerospace.

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Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 4. Reality checks.

By Bjorn Fehrm

January 28, 2022, ©. Leeham News: Having discussed where investments would be the most efficient in alleviating our Greenhouse gas problems and identified the low-hanging fruit, we now look at new technology airplanes that can improve the situation.

We start with classical airliners, working our way from small types to the largest, then we discuss the impact of new transport forms like VTOLs for short-haul transportation.

As we will use the Leeham Aircraft Performance Model in some of the work, there will be extra articles (for this one, a Part 4P) which are Paywall, where we use the model to generate deeper data and understanding.

Figure 1. The Alice nine-seater drawings from Eviation’s Web. The present drawing (dark blue) differs from the mid-2021 drawing (light blue, on top). Source: Eviation and Leeham Co.

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Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 4P. Reality checks, the deeper discussion.

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By Bjorn Fehrm

January 28, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a complementary article to the Part 4. Reality Checks article. It uses data from Leeham Company’s Aircraft Performance Model to develop the relationship between OEW (Operational Empty Weight) and MZFW (Maximum Zero Fuel Weight) compared with MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight) for 74 airliners in the model.

The article also discusses in more detail what’s the reasons behind large weight misses for new projects and how it’s handled.

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Eviation announces firm configuration for battery-powered 9-seater

By Bryan Corliss
July 1, 2021, © Leeham News: Seattle-area electric aircraft builder Eviation revealed Thursday that it has reached firm design configuration for its battery-powered, nine-seater Alice aircraft.

The announcement – which typically would signify that Eviation designers have locked-in design features, so that suppliers can use their drawings to begin work on their components – is more of a formality, however.

Eviation Executive Chairman Roei Ganzarski said suppliers already have delivered shipsets for the first production Alice, and mechanics at the company’s Arlington, WA, plant have begun final assembly.

“The plane is being built as we speak,” Ganzarski said. The company is on track for a first flight before year’s end, he added.

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Pontifications: Electric aircraft builder poised to start production near Everett

By Bryan Corliss
Jan. 18, 2021 © Leeham News
— Western Washington aviation enthusiasts may need to send out an extra Valentine this year, addressed to Alice – the nine-passenger electric aircraft being developed by Eviation.

Sometime around Valentine’s Day, mechanics should begin assembling the first production Alice at the company’s new final assembly site in Arlington (WA), about 20 miles north of Boeing’s Everett facility.

“We are literally setting it up,” said Eviation Chairman Roei Ganzarski, last week from one of the two hangars that the company has taken over at Arlington Municipal Airport, as equipment boomed in the background. “We’re putting in fixtures and furniture and paint.”

Ganzarski said his plan is to have the first production aircraft ready to start flight tests for FAA certification this summer – assuming that both Eviation and magniX, the company providing the electric motors to power the craft – are able to stand up new facilities, complete their initial hiring and get the first shipsets assembled on time.

“What an exciting year 2021 is going to be,” Ganzarski said.
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Electric aircraft builder announces new engine option

By Bryan Corliss

April 22, 2019, © Leeham News:  Electric aircraft motor builder MagniX will celebrate Earth Day today by announcing it has been chosen as one of two powerplants for Eviation Aircraft’s proposed nine-seater Alice passenger plane.

“We have been successfully testing the MagniX system with our Alice aircraft propeller for quite some time now with great results,” Eviation Chief Executive Omer Bar-Yohay said in a statement.

The MagniX motor has more than 1,500 hours on a test stand, according to Roei Ganzarski, who is CEO of the suburban Seattle engine-builder.

The Alice is a clean-sheet electric aircraft design developed by Eviation, an Israeli company that has established a testing/production facility in Prescott, AZ. Eviation has announced plans to fly the Alice at Le Bourget this summer.

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