Will This Be The First Electric Air Service To Take-Off?
This article on GeekWire is entitled MagniX Inks Deal To Retrofit Seaplanes With electric Motors For Blade Flights Around NYC And Hamptons.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Everett, Wash.-based MagniX will provide electric aircraft motors to power Cessna seaplanes flying between Nantucket, the Hamptons and downtown New York City, under an agreement announced Thursday.
The zero-emission motors will be retrofitted onto nine-passenger Cessna Caravan seaplanes operated under the Blade brand name. If all goes to plan, MagniX will start delivering motors for the Cessnas in 2023. The total number of planes to be converted will be determined later.
This is significant for the following reasons.
Blade Is A Different Company
This paragraph describes the company in their Wikipedia entry.
BLADE Urban Air Mobility, Inc. (stylized “BLADE”) is a publicly-traded, technology-powered, global urban air mobility platform based in New York City committed to reducing travel friction by enabling cost-effective air transportation alternatives to some of the most congested ground routes in the U.S. and abroad. Blade users can book by the seat on scheduled flights throughout the Northeast and West Coast or charter or crowdsource a flight anywhere in the world.
Blade is also the first publicly traded urban air mobility company.
Cessna Caravans Are Reliable Utility Airplanes
Cessna Caravans first flew forty years ago and over 2,600 have been produced.
The picture shows the one I flew in from Nairobi airport to the Masai Mara.
Note.
- The single turbo-prop engine in the nose.
- They can take up to nine passengers.
- They have range of nearly 1300 miles.
FedEx operate 260 as parcel carriers.
MagniX Have Already Flown An Electric Caravan
This video shows the Electric Caravan in flight.
This is a video of a testflight on YouTube.
The guy behind the project;Roei Ganzarski gave a very optimistic interview on BBC Breakfast.
Electric Caravans Can Fly On A Supplemental Type Certificate
I explain this in magniX, Sydney Seaplanes And Dante Aeronautical Partner For World’s First All Electric Cessna Caravan STC Program.
It means that the certification process can be shortened, as it builds on what was done to certify the aircraft iby the original manufacturer.
Blade Are At the Top End Of The Aviation Market
The Hamptons says it all!
Conclusion
I think this will be a successful venture.
The Anonymous Widower 
Here’s a photograph of a typical Cessna Caravan floatplane https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9795783. Clearly, the floats imply additional weight and drag relative to the models with a tricycle undercarriage, but we’re not thinking about long-distance flights in this electric trial are we? I don’t have any publishing rights in respect of that photo. Here are some examples on the second-hand market: https://www.controller.com/listings/for-sale/cessna/caravan-208-amphibian/aircraft
Besides the environmental gain, I guess the noise footprint of routine operations could be much reduced through the planned change of powerplant.
Kind regards, John Davison :
On Fri, 28 May 2021 at 16:49, The Anonymous Widower wrote:
> AnonW posted: “This article on GeekWire is entitled MagniX Inks Deal To > Retrofit Seaplanes With electric Motors For Blade Flights Around NYC And > Hamptons. This is the first two paragraphs. Everett, Wash.-based MagniX > will provide electric aircraft motors to power Ce” >
Comment by John Davison | June 4, 2021 |