Concept Electric Airplane Looking for Powerplant

Published: 04-Jun-2010

There's a new class of aircraft on the drawing boards, and here's one of the first examples: the EQP2 Excursion. Just big enough for two passengers and their baggage, the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) class is larger than a microlight but smaller than those flown by private pilots.

This ambitious design is powered by two electric props mounted on its tail, moving an aircraft that's less than 20 feet long. The plane's designers say it will fly at speeds of 250 mph with a range of 1,265 miles.

So far, they've built a full-scale mockup of the interior. Check it out the gallery — it looks like tons of fun to fly with its simple joystick control. They've also built a 1:4 scale model of the aircraft itself for testing, with hopes of flying a prototype for real in 2013. The stumbling block: its "Concept Electronic Power Source," which could be a design challenge, but electric planes already exist, so it's not impossible.

	Denver Firm Developing Electric Airplane If successful, Bye Energy plans to offer conversion kits of its electric drive and battery system for other light aircraft.