World's first electric plane makes maiden flight in France

businesstimes.com.sg, english.cri.cn :

A team of French engineers has for the first time ever successfully test-flown an electric plane, Anne Lavrand, who has been at the helm of the project dubbed Electra, said on Sunday [23 Dec 2007]. The aircraft, an 'Electra F-WMDJ, equipped with a 25 HP electric motor and lithium-polymer batteries, conducted a flight of 48 minutes from an airport in Hautes-Alpes', Ms Lavrand said. The plane, created by engineers as part of the Association for the Advancement of Electric Motor-powered Aircraft (APAME), was a single-seater with an unmanned weight of 155kg and a wingspan measuring nine metres.

'This exceptional technological breakthrough in the luxury aviation sector is capable of providing an alternative to the current unprecedented use of heat engines on aircraft that require between 15 and 50 HP,' the engineers, who are working on the project, said in a statement. The team of five people, who worked on the project for a year and a half, received the support of Eurocopter and Capenergies, a group of companies dedicated to the promotion of energy sources free of greenhouse gas.

- The French have got the right attitude. If there is going to be a future, the future will have to be electric.

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