It has been seldom in the history of aviation that a single technology has revolutionized the way we fly by addressing multiple problems facing the industry and solving them all. The most important such event was the widescale adoption of the turbine engine in the 1940s. Turbines, as you know, remedied (and continue to remedy) commercial, military and business aviation problems of reliability, cost, range, speed and power, while also bringing with them a number of infrastructure advantages associated with using a single fuel type. Though it’s still in its infancy, electric propulsion seems to promise to solve a similar range of problems in light GA. But in the case of the electric motor, the potential advances might be more sweeping and more compelling, though almost certainly on a smaller scale economically.
The most visible electric airplane project these days is Bye Energy’s Green Flight Project. The man behind the program is George Bye, an engineer whose background as an Air Force transport pilot and instructor doesn’t seem to lend itself to his new role as a high-tech entrepreneur and self-described futurist, the head of a company that is trying to do no less than bring electric power to the mainstream of light general aviation.
Bye has even bigger ideas for Green Flight, but the first step for his company is nevertheless an ambitious one: to convert the most popular airplane in history, the Cessna Skyhawk, to electric power. On Bye’s team is a guy who certainly knows Skyhawks, former Cessna CEO Charlie Johnson. Bye and Johnson gave a product update on the Green Flight Project at a press conference during the AOPA Summit in Long Beach, California, in November. There was much promising news, including endorsements and partnerships with several industry heavy hitters, such as Jeppesen and Cessna. Now nearly done with the detailed engineering phase of the project, Bye Energy could be flying the first electric Skyhawk soon.[...]
A Battery-Powered Skyhawk - Pilot Magazin