![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ampaire-Maui.jpg\")
Ampaire is now flying the route regularly in a one-month\ndemonstration program with Hawai\u2018i-based Mokulele Airlines, one of 15 airlines\nto have signed a Letter of Interest with the company. It is the first use of a\nhybrid-electric aircraft under the FAA\u2019s Experimental-Market Survey category,\nallowing Ampaire to fly with their crew and essential personnel for crew\ntraining and other exploratory market activity. The flight trials are supported\nby Elemental Excelerator, a global climate-tech accelerator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re following the successful path of hybrid-electric\nautomobiles in transforming ground transportation by taking that model to the\nsky,\u201d said Ampaire CEO Kevin Noertker. \u201cBy upgrading current aircraft with hybrid-electric\npropulsion we can enter the market quickly and take advantage of existing\ninfrastructure for fixed-wing aviation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trials serve two purposes, according to Noertker:\ndemonstrating electric aviation\u2019s potential to reduce harmful emissions and\nevaluating the robustness of Ampaire technology. \u201cWe can take lessons from this\nseries of flights and apply them to subsequent, larger aircraft designs already\nin the works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Electric EEL technology demonstrator used in the\nMokulele trials is an upgrade of the popular six-seat Cessna 337 twin-engine\npiston aircraft. The aircraft has a 300-horsepower piston engine in the rear\nand 160 kW-capable electric power unit in front, plus a battery pack carried in\nan under-fuselage aero-optimized shell. Due to the contribution of the electric\npower unit, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are reduced approximately 40-50\npercent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the flight trials, the only change to ground equipment\nwas the requirement to wire a Mokulele hangar with a 208-volt 3-phase outlet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ampaire has been working with the Hawai\u2018i Department of\nTransportation and the Hawaiian Electric Company to explore longer-term\ninfrastructure solutions to support a fleet of hybrid- or fully-electric\naircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe future for regional airlines is electric,\u201d said Stan\nLittle, CEO of Southern Airways which operates one of the largest commuter\nairlines in the U.S. and owns Mokulele Airlines. \u201cWe expect to put hybrid- and\nall-electric designs into service as soon as possible, and we know other\nregionals are watching us with great interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to partner with Ampaire to pave a path to\nelectric aviation that unlocks more accessibility to rural and island\ncommunities and increases green jobs while invigorating the aviation industry,\u201d\nsays Danielle J. Harris, Director of Mobility Innovation at Elemental\nExcelerator. \u201cBuilding a climate-positive aviation industry is about much more\nthan just a plane. It requires rethinking everything from airport\ninfrastructure to pilot behavior, and that\u2019s what this project is really\nproving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ampaire is the first to complete a demonstration flight of a hybrid-electric aircraft along an actual airline route. The company flew its Electric EEL aircraft on November 22nd on a 20-minute flight from Maui\u2019s Kahului Airport across the island to Hana and back on a single charge. Ampaire is now flying the route regularly in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hawaii"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17247,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245\/revisions\/17247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}