Go Ask Alice …

Following years of intensive development and choruses of naysaying, Alice, the all-electric, nine-passenger commuter aircraft designed and built by Israeli-headquartered, Washington State-based Eviation has made its inaugural flight.

The nine minute undertaking saw the unconventional machine liftoff at approximately 07:10 PDT from Grant County International Airport (MWH) in Moses Lake, Washington. Test pilot Steve Crane urged Alice to an altitude of 3,500-feet and made several passes over the airport vicinity before bringing the sleek, low-wing aircraft to safe landing.

Mr. Crane called Alice’s performance “wonderful,” and remarked: “It handled just like we thought it would. Very responsive, very quick to the throttle, and it came on in for a wonderful landing. I couldn’t be happier.” The elated pilot went on to explain that the short flight was the first of a series of “baby-steps” by which the Alice test program is scheduled to proceed. “Today was just about the initial envelope,” Crane told reporters. “For future tests, we’ll expand that envelope.”

Eviation president and CEO Gregory Davis said of the occasion: “What we have just done is made aviation history. This is about changing the way that we fly. It’s about connecting communities in a sustainable way, and we are obviously beaming with pride on this beautiful sunny day here at Moses Lake.”

Alice—the name of which derives contemporaneously of the titular character of Lewis Carroll’s famed 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and the Jefferson Airplane’s classic rock anthem White Rabbit—is a strange creature, wholly deserving of its psychedelic namesakes. The aircraft’s defining feature—its electric propulsion system—is designed and manufactured by MagniX, another Washington State based aerospace concern.

Both Eviation and MagniX are subsidiaries of the Clermont Group, a privately held conglomerate headquartered in Singapore.

Alice gets about by dint of a pair of MagniX’s magni650 Electric Propulsion Units (EPU)—850-shaft-horsepower, 640-kilowatt contraptions, each comprising MagniX’s magni650 electric motor; four magniDrive 100s, which function as inverters and motor controller units; and a closed-loop liquid cooling system that facilitates full-power operation in all flight regimes regardless of ambient environmental conditions.  

Of particular interest is the clever devilry by which MagniX designed its EPU to deliver torque and power at rotational rates commensurate with real-world propeller RPMs. The architecture facilitates direct motor-to-propeller connection, thereby precluding the need for heavy, maintenance-intensive planetary gearboxes.

Eviation predicts Alice will be produced in commuter, cargo, and executive iterations, each capable of traveling two-hundred to three-hundred-nautical-miles at a maximum speed of 260-knots. A target useful load of 2,500 to 2,600-pounds has been advertised, but—as with the antecedent range and speed figures—is wholly theoretical and predicated largely upon near-future advancements in battery technology.

Continuing in the vein of conjecture, Eviation expects Alice to earn FAA type certification by 2027—a good deal later than the 2024 time-frame to which the company formerly alluded.

Alice’s price has risen from a $4-million figure set forth in 2018 to an undisclosed amount of which Eviation boss Gregory Davis quipped: “I wouldn’t rely on anything that was mentioned a few years ago.”

FMI: www.eviation.com