Electric ambitions: First flights upcoming in 2025
December 9, 2024
With the global aviation industry turning an ever-keener eye towards decarbonisation initiatives, alternative propulsion technologies continue to expand and mature, with electrically-powered aircraft celebrating several major milestones this year. Turning towards 2025, further first flights of demonstration airframes are promised; bringing what’s often perceived as a potentially challenging propulsion subsection one step closer to achieving commercially-viable range and fulfilling stated mission objectives.
2024 picks up pace
Certainly, some notable electric innovations have taken to the skies so far in 2024. Last week, French light aircraft manufacturer made the maiden flight of its all-electric Integral E, an aerobatically-capable, two-seat training platform it hopes will join the “very exclusive club” of EASA CS-23 certified electric aircraft in 2026. US-based Beta Technologies also made the first flight of its inaugural production conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) CX300. Over in the eVTOL world, CityAirbus NextGen’s aircraft lifted off from Donauwörth eight months after first being publicly unveiled. But what of expectations for the year ahead?
Eve Air Mobility – Eve 100
After unveiling its first full-scale Eve eVTOL prototype this summer, Eve Air Mobility is looking to make its first flight “early next year,” CEO Johann Bordais confirmed in September. Speaking at Farnborough International Airshow in July 2024, he elaborated that the test campaign of the engineering prototype (dubbed the ‘Eve 100’) would be uncrewed, although added that Eve is also considering other evaluation methods for piloted elements – including assessing the human-machine-interface insights garnered by the initial campaign.
Flights will be performed under experimental ANAC (Brazilian civil aviation authority) permission, with the subsequent construction of five conforming Eve variants to ultimately continue the initial unmanned craft’s flight test work. Eve is currently eyeing an entry into service date of 2027.
Textron eAviation – Nexus eVTOL
Meanwhile, Textron eAviation has announced that “initial restrained flight tests” of its full-scale Nexus eVTOL technology demonstrator “are planned for 2025” at the National Institute of Aviation Research facility in Wichita. Testing will subsequently move to Kansas’ Salina Regional Airport, with a remotely-piloted full-scale aircraft to further develop Textron eAviation’s four-passenger, single-pilot concept.
Just as Eve can leverage synergies with parent company Embraer, Textron eAviation’s Nexus eVTOL is set to benefit from the skills of its sister companies – including Textron Aviation and Pipistrel’s expertise (with the Pipistrel Velis Electro to date the only type-certified electric-powered aircraft). The Nexus is expected to enter service within the next decade.
VoltAero – Cassio 330
Moving away from the eVTOL concept, fixed-wing aircraft developer VoltAero is hoping to make the maiden flight of its hybrid-electric Cassio 330 demonstrator in the early part of 2025; admittedly around a year later than originally intended, and further missing a previous year-end deadline announced in May. However, down on the ground, the inauguration of VoltAero’s final assembly facility in France’s Nouvelle-Aquitaine region – able to accommodate production of 150 units a year – serves to further the company’s ambitions of “[connecting] thousands of communities and regions around the world with truly sustainable and efficient advanced regional air mobility,” explained CEO and chief technology officer Jean Botti.
Unveiling its Cassio 330 concept at the 2023 Paris Airshow, VoltAero had initially intended to perform its first flight later that year (powered by a four-cylinder Kawasaki Motors thermal engine) before a hybrid-propulsion variant (incorporating a Safran ENGINeUS electric motor) was to fly in the second quarter of 2024. The upcoming milestone will build on the first flight of its proprietary hybrid-electric powertrain, which first took to the skies aboard its Cassio S testbed (a modified Cessna 337 Skymaster) “in an aviation industry first” in September 2023.
Heart Aerospace – H-X1 demonstrator
However, dreaming bigger (certainly in terms of passenger numbers) than VoltAero’s five-to-twelve person capacity is Sweden’s Heart Aerospace; intending to make the inaugural flight of its all-electric Heart-X1 demonstrator in the second quarter of 2025 from New York’s Plattsburgh International Airport. This will be the largest ever electric aircraft (well, assuming we discredit the gas-guzzling English Electric Lightning) to fly.
With the aircraft to be transported stateside from its construction site at Sweden’s Gothenburg “early in 2025,” the 32m-wingspan demonstrator is currently undergoing what Heart described as “extensive tests of critical systems” prior to the first flight. Heart Aerospace co-founder and CEO Anders Forslund has previously stated that it is “a testament to the ingenuity and dedication of [Heart’s] team that [it is] able to roll out a 30-seat aircraft demonstrator with a brand-new propulsion system, largely in-house, in less than two years”. A second pre-production prototype, the HX-2, is expected to make its first hybrid-electric flight in 2026 prior to the type’s certification by the end of the decade.
