Arlington-based electric commuter plane startup Eviation said Thursday it has finalized the design for its Alice aircraft and is on track for first flight this year.
In a hangar in Arlington, technicians have assembled the fuselage and tail of the first plane. The wings, supplied by GKN, have arrived at the facility but have yet to be attached.
“We’re actually building that airplane as we speak,” Eviation chairman Roei Ganzarski said. “And we’re about to fly it here later this year.”
The plane, carrying nine passengers and two crew, will be battery powered, with propellers turned by electric motors made by sister company MagniX of Everett, of which Ganzarski is CEO. It’s expected to have a range of about 500 miles.
The target for certification and entry into service is 2024.
The final design shows dramatic changes from a prototype touted at the 2019 Paris Air Show. The V-shaped tail on the earlier prototype is switched to a T-shaped tail. And the previous wingtip propellers are gone, replaced by short, upwardly bent wingtips.
The plane now has just two MagniX-driven propellers mounted on either side of the rear fuselage by the tail, instead of two on the wings and another at the back of the tail.
We’ve been very busy over the last two years,” Ganzarski said, adding that working with potential customers led to a simplified design.
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