[Photo & Video] Electric Aircraft: ELEKTRA ONE performed successfully her Maiden flight

Electric Aircraft from PC-Aero flew 30 minutes - Flying with CO2 emission is now reality

The Electric Aircraft ELEKTRA ONE, developed by Calin Gologan, performed it's internal First Flight on Saturday, 19. Mar. 2011 at the Airport Augsburg/Germany. This First Flight was performed by the well known test pilot Jon Karkow. He did the first check for the flight performance and characteristics of the Electric Aircraft and briefed the german test pilot Norbert Lorenzen for the next official First Flight on Wednesday, 23. Mar. 2011. On Wednesday for the first time the single-seater ELEKTRA ONE circled for 30 minutes in the air.

During its maiden flight, the ELEKTRA ONE climbed to over 500 meters, with 400 feet/min. - completely silent, without noise. The Electric Aircraft used only about 3 kWh of energy from the total 6 kWh available on board.

At first the flight characteristics were tested. The next step involved the monitoring and evaluation of important parameters of the electric drive. "Our expectations have been exceeded", says Calin Gologan, CEO of PC-Aero GmbH/Germany. "We are overjoyed."

The Geiger Engineering company, located in Bamberg/Germany, developed the electric drive unit including electric motor HPD 13.5 (16kW maximum power), controller, battery management and propeller.

Also very satisfied was the test pilot, Jon Karkow, with the stability and controllability in the air and with the safe and good landing characteristics of the ELEKTRA ONE.

In the next weeks the ELEKTRA ONE will get a new variable pitch propeller and a retractable landing gear. This will give better flight performance. You can see our Electric Aircraft in combination with a Solar Hangar at the AERO 2011, The Global Show for General Aviation in Friedrichshafen/Germany (13.-16.04.2011). Our complete system allows a full CO2 emission zero flight.

Jon Karkow is one of the world's best test pilots. He was Project leader and test pilot for the around-the-world Virgin Global Flyer that won him a 2006 Aeronautics Laureate Award from Aviation Week & Space Technology. Most recently, he served as the Technical Program Manager for Virgin Galactic's commercial space program at Scaled Composites.

For the first flight of the ELEKTRA ONE at the Airport Augsburg, he came specifically to Germany. The 48-year-old it is, of the single-seater is expected to fly during Berblinger flight competition at the Aero in Friedrichshafen (April 2011) and at the NASA-/CAFE-Green Flight Challenge in California/USA (July 2011).

CO2 emission zero, without noise and low operating costs

"We do not have to wait for new technologies, we need only to integrate current components (lightweight structures with high-quality aerodynamics, light and modern electric motors and batteries) in a optimized system. Our ELEKTRA ONE is such a modern single-seat Ultralight Electric Aircraft in composite construction. With the ELEKTRA ONE and the existing technology it is possible to fly electric without CO2-emission and without noise for over three hours. In addition, in comparison to a classic aircraft, the operating costs are much lower", says Calin Gologan, developer of the ELEKTRA ONE . "This is very interesting for flying clubs."

Video: Maiden Flight