Commercial electric aircraft Elektra One to commence first flight

By Monami Thakur | January 11 2011 10:54 AM

When you are driven by a passion to design an electric powered aircraft, one that can substantially reduce the Carbon-emission, then you know that you are working on something revolutionary - this is exactly what German airplane maker, PC-Aero, has attempted to do and have almost succeeded with the construction of the single-seat aircraft, Elektra One.

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Planning to launch the first flight in February, the aircraft is undergoing comprehensive testing and have also been accepted as an entrant to the NASA-/CAFE-Green Flight Challenge 2011.

The roll-out of Elektra One with running engine first took place on November 22, 2010 at the Rotortec Company in Germany. This was followed by successful static tests on December 22 for the German Ultralight Certification.

The prime aim of PC-Aero is to launch an electric aircraft family starting from the one-seat aircraft, Elektra One to a two and four seat aircraft - Elektra Two and Elektra Four.

The E-Plane family will be a bridge for the future electric transportation in the third dimension, the air, says Calin Gologan, president PC-Aero.

Apart from designing the electric aircrafts, the aircraft6 manufacturers are also concentrating on developing a solar hanger to house the aircrafts.

As per calculations by the company by south Germany standards, Elektra One will need about 20 m2 photovoltaic cells on the hanger roof in order to fly more than 300 hours/year.

The main design goals set by the company include weight reduction, operation cost, noise reduction, reduced hanger space, attractive design and CO2-Emission.