The company Eviation launched the first electric aircraft called Alice. It flew for 8 minutes above Washington D.C. It took off at 7a.m and flew at 3,500 feet. It cost 4 million dollars.
The plane can carry 9 passengers and the pilots, and it's powered by 21,500 small battery cells of electric cars. They weigh over 4 tonnes, making half the total weight of the airplane. Alice is designed to make flights around 400km long. The maximum weight that it can carry is around 1,180kg.
It reduces the sound of the plane and it costs a lot to operate the plane. The company hopes to use a 30-minute charge for an hour-long flight.
The objective of the company is to develop a sustainable era in aviation. At the moment, the company is doubtful if this project can make money, because it is necessary to turn electric planes into a common way of traveling. Also, they say that small and medium-sized planes are easier to make and the planes have to make small-distance flights. Eviation states that by now, the planes represent 2.5% of CO2 emissions globally, but if the other industries are trying to reduce their emissions, in 2050 the number of plane emissions will increase to 27%. This is why they want to develop new technologies to reduce this number and help the world to fight the climate change.
Source: Wikipedia
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