Christchurch aviator Gary Freedman is the founder of Electric Air, a social enterprise start-up formed to promote low emission aviation in New Zealand.
Freedman launched an all electric training plane at Christchurch airport on Friday.
Freedman is fully expecting electric10-20 seater planes to be flying domestic routes here before 2030.
His Alpha Electro plane is a two-seater battery electric light-aircraft designed for training student pilots.
The plane is manufactured in Slovenia, he told Kathryn Ryan.
“I visited the factory and flew in the plane and I was amazed, it was quiet, it was smooth, its performance was excellent as good or better than anything I had ever flown so I was absolutely hooked and I knew if no one else was going to do it I was going to bring this first plane to New Zealand.”
It performs equally, if not slightly better, than a petrol powered equivalent, he says. And it is very quiet.
“For the person on the ground when the plane flies overhead it is something like 70 percent quieter than a comparable combustion engine plane.”
The plane is designed to fly for one hour with a half-hour reserve, which is suitable for training flights.
“Ninety percent of training done for a standard pilot’s licence could now be achieved in this plane.”
He predicts fully electric planes flying 10-to-20 passengers will be the norm within a decade and that hybrid technology will become more common for larger planes.
Electric Air has partnered with Christchurch City Council, Airways and Meridien Energy for the project.
He hopes this first small step will be a game changer for aviation in New Zealand, just as the early electric cars were.
“The aim isn’t just training it’s really about demonstration and about challenging others.”
And with battery advances happening apace, the electric aviation sector in New Zealand has a great future, he says.
“The technology will be available this decade to enable us to switch over all our domestic flights.
“New Zealand has the highest rate of short-haul flights per capital anywhere in the world. If we could be an early adopter of that with our green grid why wouldn’t we do it?”
