ALICE will be the world's first electric passengers aircraft and will soon be the reality in the history of aviation. ALICE, the prototype developed by Israeli company Eviation and designed by Italian multinational, The Magnaghi Group - Ma Group, have signed an important memorandum of understanding at Paris Air Show for the launch of the first all-electric aircraft in the history of world aviation.
ALICE will be able to fly at 220 knots with a range of 650 miles on a single battery charge and with the ability to carry up to 9 passengers, plus the two pilots. Eviation defines ALICE as the "first fully electric and fully operational regional commuter". After the positive test flights this year, certification is expected to be obtained in 2021. Once this step has been completed, the aircraft will be operational for commercial use as early as 2022.
According the Statista 2019, fuel costs are a significant but highly variable expense for airlines worldwide, constituting 23.5 percent of total expenditure in 2018. This figure decreased from 32.3 percent in 2012 but is expected to rise again to 25 percent of expenditure in 2019.
MA Group is developing the landing gear system for the ALICE project consisting of two electrically driven main landing gears, a tail landing gear as well as wheels and brakes, which will use state-of-art electrical technology, developed by Magnaghi. Speaking with BW Businessworld on the sidelines of Paris Air Show ,MA Group Senior Vice President, Giorgio Iannotti said: "We are proud to be part of this project that could change the course of global air transport."
At the heart of cutting edge research and scientific marvel, ALICE uses distributed propulsion with one main pusher propeller at the tail and two pusher propellers at the wingtips to reduce drag, create redundancy, and improve efficiency.
ALICE will have low noise & zero emissions with quiet and emission free engine.
Omer Bar-Yohay, Eviation CEO founded the company to change the way people move regionally. The all-electric aircraft, known as project Alice, is designed to enable high-speed, sustainable airborne commuting, tightly integrated with on-demand ground transport solutions. Interacting with the media at Paris air Show, Omer said ALICE will begin test flights this year.
Over the worldwide concern for the rising fuels and the sustainability, this could potentially be the revolutionary step in the air passenger transportation system he said, “This confirms our ability to offer highly advanced and technological products working closely with our customers and partners. For this program MA Group will implement electrical brakes technologies as advanced materials applications to minimize overall maintenance activities.
This will be the groundbreaking work for Magnaghi Aeronautica, the holding company of MA Group, which is a major player in the global market for landing gears and actuation system and offers design, manufacturing and support landing gears and landing gear systems for small and medium fixed wing aircraft, both civil and military, and rotary-wing. Having gained the next generation capability by participating in the most important Aircraft Programs including t Boeing AH64, B747, B767, B787, B777 and LMAero F35 landing gears, Boeing B787, B777 and Airbus A220, Group positions to redefine the future of aviation.