Two-Seat, All-Electric German Ultralight Nears Certification

Elektra Solar GmbH—the German aerospace concern with focuses in the fields of manned and unmanned aerial systems—has successfully test-flown the Elektra Trainer, the company’s two-seat, electric, ultralight aircraft.

With test-pilot Uwe Nortmann at the controls, the Elektra Trainer prototype departed Memmingen International Airport in southern Germany on 29 June.

The aircraft rose, silently and sans-emissions, after an impressively brief, one-hundred-meter takeoff roll, and climbed at a brisk, eight-meters per second and remained aloft for twenty minutes. At altitude, the Elektra Trainer operated in a low-cruise mode that drew only about ten-kilowatts of power.

Upon landing, Herr Nortmann remarked favorably of the aircraft, stating it exceeded the expectations of the developers.

The Elektra Trainer was designed to meet the needs of flight schools and flight clubs. Its low operating cost of  less than €60 per hour is about half that of a traditional ultralight aircraft. The model also marks the advent of Elektra Solar‘s Digital Aircraft Platform, a proprietary infrastructure that facilitates preventive maintenance by automatically monitoring the systems of in-flight aircraft and uploading the data to a cloud-based network, where it’s analyzed with the help of AI-algorithms.

Errors and deviations from normal operating parameters are reported to the aircraft’s owner and/or a maintenance provider. The platform, which Elektra Solar plans to offer across its fleet, contemporaneously increases safety and reduces maintenance costs.

Having completed its maiden flight, the Elektra Trainer will now begin certification flight-testing with an eye toward receiving German UL certification by the end of this year. Thereafter, Elektra Solar looks to gradually expand its electric aircraft family. The company is confident it can develop and build a 10-seat, regional-mobility, community-friendly (low-noise) electric aircraft with a five-hundred-kilometer range within ten-years.

FMI: www.elektra-solar.com