On 29 June 2022, a two-seater electrical ultralight plane Elektra Coach from Elektra Photo voltaic GmbH (a spin-off of the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics) took off for its maiden flight at Memmingen Worldwide Airport. Electrical flying in Germany is changing into a actuality step-by-step.
The plane took off between enterprise jets and business plane in lower than 100 m silently and emission-free. After about 20 minutes of flight, take a look at pilot Uwe Nortmann landed, confirming the extraordinary traits of the plane, which even exceeded the expectations of the builders. Rising like a jet with over 8 m/s, flying in low cruising flight with solely about 10 kW of energy, with out vibrations within the cockpit and excellent stability promise the plane an excellent market future.
This plane accumulates the corporate’s many years of expertise within the improvement of solar-electric plane. Elektra Coach is especially primarily based on the confirmed expertise of Elektra One, the single-seat electrical plane from Elektra Photo voltaic, which was licensed final yr within the German ultralight (UL) class.
Elektra Coach was designed as an excellent plane for flight colleges and flight golf equipment. The working prices are lower than 60 EUR/hour, which is about half the price of a basic ultralight plane. This value distinction will enhance from yr to yr as a result of quickly rising gas prices.
With this plane, Elektra Photo voltaic GmbH takes into operation a cloud infrastructure for automated system diagnostics and preventive upkeep (Digital Plane Platform). The system state information of the flight are uploaded to a cloud and routinely analysed with the assistance of AI-algorithms. The errors and deviations from the traditional situation are reported to the proprietor and/or a upkeep firm. Because of this expertise, the protection of operation shall be elevated, and the upkeep effort shall be additional diminished.
After this maiden flight, we’ll start the certification flight checks and are very assured of finishing the German UL certification by the top of this yr. Now we have been making ready the collection manufacturing and can open the European market within the subsequent few years.
The highlights of Elektra Coach are:
- 2.5 hours flight length and 300 km vary
- Twin redundant electrical drive system
- Excessive consolation (1.25 m vast cockpit for two m tall pilots)
- Meeting time from transport trailer to able to fly: about half-hour
- Moveable 12 kW charging station (within the baggage compartment)
- Variable pitch propeller
- Electrical retractable touchdown gear
- Digital plane platform for automated system diagnostics and preventive upkeep
- Excellent gliding properties (glide quantity over 25)
Outlook
Elektra Photo voltaic will step by step broaden its electrical plane household to a 10-seater regional mobility and community-friendly (low-noise) electrical plane. We’re very assured that in lower than 10 years a 10-seater regional electrical plane from Elektra Photo voltaic with a variety of greater than 500 km will take off from Memmingen.
