Eviation displayed its first full-scale prototype of the aircraft at the Paris Air Show in 2019 before shipping it to Prescott, Arizona, where the company intended to begin flight testing before the end of 2019. A second prototype was due to arrive at this US base during the fourth quarter of 2019, having been assembled in Vannes, France, at facilities owned by its composite fuselage supplier Carboman Group. A third production conforming aircraft was due to be delivered to the Prescott base in mid-2020.
However, according to a report in the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Alice prototype arrived from France in crates at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, in early November 2019. Later that month, Eviation confirmed that the first Alice flight test has been pushed back from 2019 to 2020 and that Moses Lake will be the base for these flights. It provided no explanation for the delay or change of operational base. On 22 January 2020, the programme suffered a setback when the first Alice prototype was damaged in a fire that started during battery recharging.
Alice is intended to transform the operating economics of the regional air transportation sector by delivering a significant reduction in energy costs with an all-electric powerplant. Eviation says that the $4 million aircraft will offer direct operating costs of just $200 per flight hour. US operator Cape Air placed the launch order for Alice in a June 2019 deal for an undisclosed number of aircraft. The company claims to have total orders for at least 150 aircraft; it already holds commitments for 75 aircraft from Cape Air, with express delivery giant DHL expected to initially take around 12 units.
Key programme partners include the following:
This story is from the September 2022 edition of Future Flight.
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This story is from the September 2022 edition of Future Flight.
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