Ultralight Electric Plane Makes Flying Cheaper Than Driving

If you’ve got $21,000 to spare, you can get yourself your very own ElectraFlyer C, a tiny ultralight electric plane that flies for 2 hours per charge and is virtually silent.  This kit plane, made by Electric Aircraft Corporation, could be even more eco-friendly if you charged it via solar or wind power.  The take-home kit consists of a moni motoglider and a battery pack.  The per-flight cost works out to about 60 cents!

From Dance with Shadows Aviation:

A direct drive 5 KWh electric motor carbon fiber lightweight 45 inch propeller gets the little airplane climbing at 500-600 feet per minute. The ElectraFlyer-C has a cruisng speed of 70 mph (112 kmph), a top speed of 144 kmph, and your flight time would be 1.5 to 2 hours. That is with the top end battery pack, of course. With others, your flight time would be a lesser. yes, you can carry that 110 W charger when flying cross-country. The ElectraFlyer weighs around 250 pounds.

Charging time? For that 2 hour flight, you can recharge the ElectraFlyer’s battery pack in 6 hours from a 110W  electric power socket, or in 2 hours from a 220 W socket. Neat.

It complies with FAA regulations, and you can purchase an optional ballistic parachute for emergencies.  Maintenance costs are super low, and your neighbors won’t complain about noise, though most of us don’t have runways in our yards.

The ElectraFlyer C will likely only get better with development cycles.  Pretty effing rad!

Link [Dance with Shadows]

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