First fully-electric commercial seaplane takes flight in Canada

Piloted by Harbour Air CEO and Pilot Greg Mcdougall, the world's first commercial electric plane took off from Vancouver, Canada. According to reports, the electric plane's plane was built by engineering firm magniX in collaboration with Harbour Air. While talking to a media outlet, Mcdougall referenced the electric plane to a beaver, adding that the plane was really powerful and he had to back off a little bit on the power. The pilot flew the plane on a flight path along the Fraser River located near the international airport in the city of Vancouver, Canada. According to reports, the journey was less than 15 minutes.

Electric planes are fuel-efficient

Mcdougall said that the main goal is to establish a fleet full of electric planes as they are fuel-efficient and would help save the company millions of dollars in terms of maintenance costs, adding that electric motors of these planes are not high maintenance. However, the Harbour Air CEO will have to wait for about a period of two years before he can take the step of adding electric planes to his fleet of seaplanes. The reason is because the planes have to undergo further testing to meet the safety standards and the electric motors need to get required certifications by regulators.

The electric plane was a 62-year-old, six-seater DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver seaplane with a powerful 750hp (horsepower) electric motor. Use of such planes has been promoted by the ICAO(The International Civil Aviation Organisation) because they are completely electric and produce zero-emissions.

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X-57 'Maxwell'

In a previous incident, NASA showcased an early version of its all-electric plane called the X-57 “Maxwell” on November 8 at its aeronautical lab located in a Californian desert. According to reports, the production of the Maxwell X-57 started in the year 2015 but is still under the process of getting built by NASA.

NASA said that it will take another year before the first plan comes out of production and takes its first flight from the Edward Air Drive Base. The X-57 has an Italian design from Tecnam P2006T which is a twin-engine propeller aircraft. The engine of the plane will be specially designed lithium-ion batteries.

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(With inputs from agencies)