390 Electric Airplane Test Flight: Max Trescott Reviews the Bristell B23 Energic
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You've probably heard the buzz about electric airplanes, but what's it like to actually fly one? I just got the chance to fly a fully electric trainer, and in this episode I'll take you inside that flight experience. Plus, I talk with the pioneers who are designing and building this next generation of clean, quiet, and surprisingly capable aircraft. It's an exciting glimpse into the future of aviation, and trust me, you'll want to hear what's coming.

Hello again and welcome to Aviation News Talk, where we talk general aviation. My name is Max Trescott. I've been flying for 50 years. I'm the author of several books and the 2008 National Flight Instructor of the Year. And my mission is to help you become the safest possible pilot.

Last week in episode 389, we talked with Dr. John Trowbridge about the FAA's no-go list for over-the-counter medications and how long you have to wait after taking common drugs such as Benadryl and Zyrtec. So if you didn't hear that episode, you may want to check it out at aviationnewstalk.com slash 389.

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which will take you to their website where you can make your purchase. Now let me tell you about my first flight ever this past weekend in an electric airplane. I don't know about you, but I love new technology. I was just nine years old when I soldered together my first electronic kit, a CB radio from Lafayette Electronics. In college, I got my degrees in electrical engineering and psychology, which meant that I could analyze my motherboard.

And I spent 25 years in high tech working for HP. So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw my first electric airplane fly at AirVenture in 2011.

It was an experimental twin-engine laser ultralight designed by Dale Kramer, who replaced the engines with two electric motors. Now, Dale opened up the wings and showed me that he had filled them with 100 pounds of LiPo batteries, the same ones sold to people building and flying radio-controlled airplanes. What surprised me the most was watching Dale taxi and seeing that the propeller came to a complete stop whenever he stopped his taxi. Now, obviously, with an electric motor...

You can start it and stop it whenever you like, which is one of the power-saving advantages that these aircraft have over piston airplanes. Since then, I've always felt that electric planes would play a role in GA, and that the first application would be trainer aircraft.

That's because a major limitation is battery life. For years, people have said that electric aircraft would need to be able to fly for an hour in order for a trainer aircraft to be a practical solution. And I've just flown an electric aircraft that can fly for an hour, and that company is taking orders for their plane. The Bristol B-23 Energic is currently on tour of the U.S., and it stopped at my home airport of Palo Alto, California for a week to give demo rides.

The plane is a result of a partnership between Czech airplane manufacturer BRM Aero and Swiss electric propulsion company H55. BRM is the aircraft company. H55 is providing the electric propulsion system for the aircraft.

This electric version of the aircraft is based on BRM Aero's piston-powered B-23, a two-seat all-metal low-wing design that's available with either a 100-horsepower 912IS Rotax engine or the 141-horsepower 915IS turbocharged version. Fuel capacity is 31.7 gallons.

and it has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,653 pounds and a useful load of 661 pounds. The Bristol B-23 Energic, which I flew, uses the B-23's airframe, but replaces its engine with H-55's electric motor and batteries. Now, H-55 was founded by the same team that designed the Solar Impulse II, which was a solar-powered aircraft that flew around the world 10 years ago.

It had a wingspan wider than a Boeing 747, and it was covered with over 17,000 solar cells that charged its batteries in the daytime, allowing it to fly through the night. The longest leg of the journey, which was flown from Hawaii to Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, lasted five days and five nights, and that's one of the reasons the company is called H-55. By the way, I watched that historic flight land at Moffett Field since it's here in my hometown.

Now that leg was flown by co-founder Andre Borschberg, who I arranged to have speak after the flight to members of the Aero Club of Northern California. So it was fun to see him again after 10 years.

What's interesting about H-55's strategy is that it differs from a number of other companies that are designing electric aircraft. Those companies are vertically integrated, and they're designing and building the entire electric airplane. Now, that would include Textron, which owns Pipistrel, and Bayer Aerospace. And we had George Bayer, the founder of Bayer Aerospace, on the show back in 2020. So if you'd like to hear what he had to say, check out episode 160 at aviationnewstalk.com slash 160.

Now, by contrast, H-55 is designing and building just the components of the electric propulsion system, and they are partnering with other aircraft companies to install these components in airplanes that already exist. So that should simplify the certification process further.

and reduce their time to market, since they're installing electrical components in aircraft that are already certified. And H-55 has a number of partnerships going on, in addition to the one with BRM Aero, and we'll talk first with Martin LaRose, H-55's CEO, about those other projects. Then I'll play the audio from my flight, and then we'll wrap up with some comments from H-55's co-founder, Andre Borschberg.

Now, this interview starts a little differently from most. I was in a conference room talking with H55's PR rep, Tamara Burton, and there was a gentleman sitting in the room who occasionally jumped in to answer a question. At one point, I was introduced to him, and that's when I realized he was CEO Martin LaRose. Here's what that conversation sounded like.

And are you based in Switzerland? I'm based in Switzerland. Yeah. So you're from Canada, but based in Switzerland. Oh, interesting. Okay, very good. What's your background? I'm a mechanical engineer by trade. I did 20 years in Bombardier aerospace, mostly in Montreal, but in the US and Europe as well. And then I was with the Volvo Group doing electrification of road transports.

And now I'm doing electrification of aerospace. So it's bringing my two worlds together. Yeah, that's great. I've been with the team two and a half years now. So you're from Canada originally? Yes. The French speaking part? Yes, exactly. So that works perfectly. So it's perfect in Switzerland, yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right, super. How long have you been with H55? Two and a half years. And what attracted you to that? I mean, what was your last job before that and what attracted you to that?

The last job just before that was with the Volvo Group. I was head of one of the Volvo Group companies. We were doing basically city buses. And the major program there was the electrification of city buses. So I was attracted to green techs.

and all that comes with it at that point. And when I got the call, I'm an aerospace guy, and I was kind of missing the aerospace world. So that ticked one box in the green tech field, which was super appealing and interesting for me. I wanted to live the experience of the startup world, which is quite different than big companies like Volvo and Bombardier.

very fast pace. Yeah. Really, yeah, so Switzerland, the people, the area, the project, it ticked all the boxes. Tell me a little bit about the project you're doing with the CAE for electrification of the archers. Yes.

So on CAE, what we do is the goal is to develop a supplemental type certificate to refurbish a large portion of their fleet. Yeah. So CAE is obviously building a lot of flight simulators, but they're the largest operator of flight schools. And they have a large fleet of Fiber Archers. And their goal is to modify, upgrade up to 80 of these aircraft with the supplemental type certificate for electric.

So they chose us as the battery manufacturer. We're dealing with Safra from France who are providing the electric motor for the aircraft. We provide the battery and CAE are the STC holders or they're their program manager and putting it all together with the aircraft. What's interesting is after electrifying the CAE fleet, we are very close to Piper themselves and

And they have the intention to then take the STC and embed that into their production line and be able to offer Piper Archer in electric format to flight schools in the future. So there's a long program ahead and interesting potential sales, obviously, of this type of aircraft. ♪

And are you looking to use essentially the same battery modules that you have in the B-23 or a different version? It's a different version of the battery module. We've taken the opportunity to add more energy into a larger battery pack, basically. So on this battery pack that you see on the aircraft here, we have 36 cylindrical cells. And on the next version, we're going to 120 cells into the same larger battery pack.

which permits us to have a better energy density, reduce costs, and a good fit, form, and function on which we can develop other platforms. And what's interesting on the battery side as well is every time that we come with the new battery for the aircraft that requires to change their batteries over time, we're able to embed better energy density with the next evolution, which increases flight time.

So on the current modules that you had, you said 36 cells? 36 cells, yes. And then how many of those modules in the B23? We have 86 of these modules in the B23, which is about 300 in kilos per

300 kilos of batteries. And what's the voltage of each individual cell? 4.2 volts per cell. And these being manufactured in Montreal now? The actual modules are being put together in Switzerland for the B23. Got it. And for the CAE program, which is North American based, we will build those in the Montreal facility.

I see, okay. So you've got kind of a two factory strategy and how we use each factory. Right, the idea to have these two factories is to be closer to our customers. So the Montreal facility is destined to provide batteries for the North American market, US, Canada.

and even South America. And the Cian based in Switzerland, the Switzerland production line is for the European market. It's much easier to build locally and ship locally than having batteries to be transported on an aircraft across the ocean.

Right. It has nothing to do with the weight of the batteries, right? No, no. It's something I noticed a long time ago is that we tend to have local manufacturers of very heavy things because transportation costs become significant. Even more so with batteries, as strange as this may seem, putting our batteries for transporting on an aircraft is quite complicated.

all the rules that come into play and the cost associated with transporting batteries that are destined for an aircraft, putting them on an aircraft for transport is very complicated and costly, which drove us to do this more local production sites. Tell me about the project that you're working on with Pratt & Whitney for the Dash 8. Yeah, that's a completely different application, which is super interesting for us and opens doors for the future.

So we are starting our commercialization of the company within the Part 23 world, general aviation, starting with small aircraft, flight school applications, which are very appealing and have a very good market.

But our future is to grow into the Part 25 world for commercial aircraft applications. And we have this entry point now with the project with Pratt & Whitney where we are hybridizing Dash 8400 aircraft. Pratt are developing a new combustion engine, which is specifically designed for hybrid applications.

They are using Collins, their partner within the Raytheon group for the electric motor. And we are providing the full battery system to power the electric phase of the flights.

Tell me about the Harbour Air project. Harbour Air is another refurb program where we are electrifying the beaver on floats for local transport, short hops between Vancouver Airport and neighbouring islands. So we are dealing there with another motor manufacturer. The project is managed by Harbour Air. Again, it's supplemental type certificate, a little bit like CAE, with the goal of refurbishing part of their fleet and being able to fly for electric cars.

So it sounds like on different projects you provide different components. Now for the B23 that I just flew, is that your motor or is that something you've done with a partnership with someone else? On the B23 type certificate that we are presently developing, we're dealing with an outside source for motor manufacturing. A large portion of the engineering and the detail design comes from H-35.

And we outsource the build to an outside company in Great Britain called EquipMake, who are a good partner of ours. They are mostly in the automotive world, but they have some developments already of electric motors for aerospace. So they have the expertise and they're developing the certification with us.

And so the motor was designed by H55 or... Designed to our specs and we have a relatively high level of control, not to get into details, but we have the design authority, the certified design authority of the motor. So we have to have very detailed oversight over what they do per the certification processes. So in the end, it's their build and I would say our design.

My understanding is you've got two windings in the motor and that helps eliminate single points of failure. Exactly. Tell me about that. So the authorities have taken the opportunity with electrification of propulsion systems to increase the safety levels, basically, of these aircraft.

What we're dealing with is a single propeller aircraft that in all essence has two motors in it. The double winding and everything behind the motor is decoupled to have 100% redundancy. So you can lose part of your battery system, you can lose part of your computer controls.

and you can lose one of the motors and still be able to fly and climb and land. So the level of redundancy is basically better than a single prop aircraft with a combustion engine because of this increased redundancy. So they are imposing this, and we've adapted to this requirement now. It did have a relatively large impact on our complete design, but...

But over the last couple of years, let's say we've absorbed that change and now it's fully implemented in radio. My understanding is if you're on a single winding, you're limited to 70%. What kind of power level roughly does that equivalent to?

We're at 104 max takeoff power. And the rule is that with a single motor failure, you're able to still climb at 10%.

in order to be able to get out of a tricky situation. The exact power setting at that point, I wouldn't know. Yeah. Okay. Tell me about charging. How long does it take to charge and what kind of charging infrastructure do people need? So the embedded energy in the aircraft is close to 50 kilowatt hours.

And the practical application for having a one-hour flight with a flight school is that when you land and you have the proper infrastructure and a charger that has about 50 kilowatt power output,

you're able to charge the aircraft in one hour. So 50 kilowatt hour, 50 kilowatt charge, you're able to do it in one hour. Obviously, this is in normal operating conditions. If you're in a very hot environment, you're going to have to let the battery system cool down. We don't have forced air cooling or liquid cooling on this aircraft. We have natural air cooling. But we've tested the aircraft time and time again. Now, in normal weather, I would say, you're able to do a full charge in an hour.

So talk about the cooling. I had read something about liquid cooling. Is that on the... On the motor. Motor and motor controller. Got it. Okay. So this is air-cooled engine then? No, we have a liquid-cooled engine and motor controller, but we have air-cooled battery system. Ah, I see. So a combination of cooling system. Yep, exactly. And it makes the system much more simple. And we found that for a flight school application and this size of aircraft,

and the power requirements that you draw from the battery, a natural air-cooled battery system is plenty. We have other applications that we're developing with forced air cooling and with liquid cooling as well because the specs require it and the power draw from the battery increases the heat of the battery system quite significantly. In those cases, you need specific cooling systems.

What kind of things keep you up at night when you are thinking about this business? What are your concerns? I would say our short-term concern is path to certification. If anyone in the aerospace business tells you that it's easy, guaranteed, and quick, they don't know what they're talking about.

So we have, I would say, 90% of our resources dedicated to the certification effort right now. We're doing tests, we're writing reports, we're negotiating with the authorities.

But in the end, there's always risk of finding something or there's always risk of having something change on the certification side, on the authority side, in their interpretation when you get down to the details. So we're pushing hard. We're getting close to the finish line. But that is obviously the part where we put the most energy. And it does keep me up at night sometimes.

And then as a startup, like any startup in today's world, continuing to find funding is the key. Everyone is looking for the next funding round and making sure that the story continues. We are in an environment now which is not so easy economically around the world.

And especially in the field of batteries, it's not so obvious these days. We're doing well in developing contacts and finding our way through.

But it's a lot of work and we keep at it. My understanding is that there are four main steps in the certification process and that you're in step four. Do I have that correct? It's different than the U.S. With EASA, there are different steps, but they're not the same as the G1, G2, G3 like in the U.S.,

But with all intended purposes, we are at the last step where first we have developed our design organization, which has been approved by the authorities, IASA. We've developed our production organization, which has been approved by the local authorities as well. So this is a big major step.

Then obviously we had to launch the certification program officially and work very hard on determining what we call the means of compliance. So you need to determine which rules are you going to work against and how are you going to prove that you meet these rules.

And I'm talking here about pages and pages of reports and discussions. So we've done all of this work. All of the certification checklists have been determined with the authorities now more than a year ago. And we are in the phase now of the showing of compliance. So we're actually doing the tests with EASA witnessing to show them we said, hey, we're showing you a we have a pass. We write a report tick in the box.

But this, what I just said, is maybe the equivalent of 400 tests just on the battery system. And then we have to do these tests on each of the items in the EPS system, in the electric propulsion system, all the way up to motor, and then do a full system certification. So we are at the end of this in the showing of compliance step. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. You're welcome. You're welcome. Super. The actual production version that they will ship will be a little different.

For example, the motor in this aircraft had just a single winding in it, which was a single point of failure since part of the wire in that winding could break or melt. The final production version will have two windings. That way, if one wire fails, the other one will continue to operate the motor, though each winding can only handle 70% of the normal current. Hence, the motor will put out less power if it has to fall back and operate on just a single winding.

The final production motor is specified at 104 kW, roughly equivalent to 140 hp. However, the specs say that full power should only be used when taking off from grass runways that require more power. Otherwise, the normal maximum takeoff power is 90 kW, about 121 hp. The maximum cruise speed is expected to be around 200 km/h, which is 107 knots.

The current battery contains 48 kWh of usable energy. The batteries are lithium-ion and are of the NCA type, which stands for nickel-cobalt-aluminum. That battery chemistry generally offers a good cycle life, meaning they can be charged and discharged many times before performance degrades. In fact, H55 is warranting the batteries for 1,500 charge cycles.

NCA batteries can also deliver power relatively quickly, making them useful for applications that require bursts of energy.

The maximum takeoff weight of the piston-powered Bristol 23 is 750 kilograms, but the current P2 version of the electric version has a maximum takeoff weight that's 100 kilograms higher at 850 kilograms, which is 1,874 pounds. The team is seeking a 50 kilogram increase in gross weight for the final production version, bringing it to 900 kilograms, or 1,984 pounds.

And the plan is to use that extra 110 pounds to put more batteries in the airplane. Here's why that's important. The P2 version is spec'd with an endurance of 60 minutes of flight time, plus a 10 minute reserve. And if 10 minutes of reserve sounds low to you, you may be thinking of FAA's 91.151, which says that an aircraft needs 30 minutes of reserve fuel for daytime flight and 45 minutes of fuel for nighttime flight.

By the way, helicopters need only 20 minutes of reserve fuel, and there's a relatively new exception for eVTOLs. Per SFAR 120, which is titled Powered Lift Pilot Certification and Training Operational Requirements, a 20-minute reserve is permitted for eVTOL aircraft,

provided they are capable of landing in vertical lift mode along their entire route. But there is no similar exemption in the U.S. for electric airplanes, so at present they must follow 91.151's 30-minute rule.

By contrast, in Europe, EASA's AMC1NCO.OP.125A, which is for non-commercial operations, sets less stringent what they call minimum final reserve energy requirements for all airplanes, including electric ones.

The rule says that final reserve fuel, which is FRP slash energy, should be no less than the required fuel energy to fly an airplane for 10 minutes at maximum continuous cruise power at 1,500 feet above the destination under VFR by day, taking off and landing at the same aerodrome slash landing site, and always remaining within sight of that aerodrome landing site.

Now, the 1,500 feet might seem a little confusing. That's not a required flight altitude. Rather, it's a reference altitude for energy consumption calculations. 1,500 feet AGL is used as it's a conservative standard for energy consumption because it assumes you're close to sea level or a normal density altitude.

It removes altitude variability from the energy requirement, and it's roughly where you might enter a holding pattern or remain while loitering visually. So, European operators will be able to fly the current version of the B-22 Energic for 60 minutes. But at the moment, if the current version of the plane were to be flown in the U.S., it could only fly for 40 minutes in order to land with a 30-minute energy reserve.

That's why H55 plans to complete certification in Europe first and begin shipping the plane to customers there in 2026. They don't expect to start shipping to U.S. customers until 2027, at which point they expect to have a larger battery capacity so they can still achieve something close to a 60-minute endurance with a 30-minute reserve.

The Bristol B23 Energic will ship with a three-blade fixed-pitch carbon composite propeller. The pitch is adjustable, though it can only be adjusted on the ground, where you would loosen some nuts and then twist each prop blade to its new pitch setting. One of the nicest features of this airplane is its wide cabin width of 51.2 inches.

I'm just over 6 feet tall with broad shoulders and the cabin felt roomy and not at all like the Cessna 150 trainer that I learned in where my CFIs and my shoulders practically touched. Wingspan is 30.4 feet and length is 21.6 feet so the plane will easily fit into a standard T-hanger. One area where the B-23 Energic is more limited than the piston powered B-23 is in payload.

The maximum payload for the Energic is 180 kilograms or 397 pounds. And that's 73 pounds less than the piston-powered version loaded with full fuel. Now, luckily for me,

My doctor told me about three and a half months ago to lose weight, and I lost 40 pounds, which has brought me down to 200 pounds, which, totally coincidentally, was the maximum weight that H-55 allowed for passengers for these demo flights. So, thank you Dr. Humphreys, because if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to fly this plane. By the way, if the company gets the max gross weight increase, they don't plan to increase the payload, as all of that weight will be used for more batteries.

This is one area where electric aircraft are less flexible than piston-powered aircraft. In most planes, pilots are used to trading off fuel for payload, depending upon which they want to carry more of. But in electric aircraft, the battery weight is fixed, so there's no way to offload some of the batteries to increase the payload.

The company specs the climb rate at 800 feet per minute at maximum takeoff power. We were not at max power when we took off, and I saw a climb rate of around 600 feet per minute. Stall speed of the final production version is expected to be between 45 and 50 knots. By the way, the piston-powered B-23 has an option for a BRS parachute, but the B-23 Energic will not have that option. I was told that was a weight consideration.

Another similar trade-off is that the piston-powered B-23 has two wing lockers, each of which can carry 44 pounds of luggage. Those lockers are eliminated in the B-23 Energic so it can carry more batteries. Of course, the big advantage of the B-23 Energic is its low hourly operating cost. Depending upon the local cost of electricity, I was told that operators could expect to pay about $8 to $9 an hour to operate the aircraft for an hour.

Now the cost of fuel and oil for a typical trainer aircraft probably cost at least $50 an hour, so that's a big difference. Now let's jump into the airplane with my pilot, Laurent.

I was able to get my recorder started just after I asked him about his flying background. And by the way, I'm also making a video version of my flight, and listeners who've signed up to support the show on Patreon at the $20 per month level will be able to see that video later this week. So if you've been listening for a while and enjoy the show, and have thought you'd like to support it someday, now would be a great time to take the two or three minutes it takes to do that by going out on the web to aviationnewstalk.com slash support.

Now here's the audio from my flight with Laurent. Bush landing as well. So mainly on the Piper Super Cub.

And the only turbine I'm flying is the PC-7, the Pilatus. Ah, wonderful airplane. Oh, the 7. I was thinking the 12. Yeah, the training one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the fighter. Fun. That's a great one for aerobatics as well. Especially in the Alps, you can climb very fast and do loop at high altitude. That's great. That's great. And what engine do they have in the 7? The PT-6. Okay. Yes. Wow.

Okay, so I will give you some information about the cockpit. So here on the left you have all the main switches, the cockpit battery, the avionics. You have the two circuits of energy, the left and the right, coming from the wings and here behind the engine as well. So left and right. This is to switch on the engine. We have a ready position and a flight position. Okay.

Cooling system when you start the engine you are the first cooling system working and there is a backup system here Okay, then two computer the motor management computer and the power management computer The energy basically. Okay, we have all the lights here the fuse then slabs are electrical first position 10 degrees then second position 25. Okay, and

The throttle, the value will be in kilowatts. And we have an override throttle, so a backup throttle with two positions, the cruise, 40 kilowatts, and the max continuous power, 80 kilowatts. OK.

And do you have detents in this as you go forward? So not full forward for the takeoff. So we use only a 95 kilowatt max for the takeoff. And you'll be looking up here to see that? Yeah, on this computer. Got it. I will show you later. And then I only have to trim myself on the stick on the left. I understand. Yeah.

trim setting you can see here. About Avionics we have 2 G5 so you get on the left the speed and the right the altitude. This instrument is the angle of attack indicator and it provides you the stall warning as well. So it's Garmin AOA.

Yeah. Okay. And that's it for inside. Okay. So fire extinguisher here in case. Okay. A crush axe here in the middle on your left. And to open the canopy, there is a lever here. Just you pull and you can push the canopy. Okay. Now you didn't mention my favorite part of the airplane.

Your favorite clay parts. The red handle. Yes, except we are not able to use it. That's the reason. So this canopy release is not functional now because we keep the gas trot canopy. Okay. So that was for the test flight, wearing the parachute in case of bailout. Right. So we don't wear parachutes. And that's the idea of this canopy.

This bar here, it's to avoid if you release the canopy, to get the canopy in your head. Okay. Hitting your head, yes. Now, in the B-23, there's an option for the parachute, the BRS. The ballistic. Yeah, is that going to be an option for the energy? Not really, so it's heavy. It's a very heavy system, and I mean, for now, the battery is heavy as well. Got it.

And we had to decide. Not an option. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. When I saw this handle, it's the same position. Exactly. That's why I thought it was the parachute handle. Okay, good. Okay. Any more questions? No, I think we're good. Okay. And then we're going to stay essentially in the traffic pattern? Yeah, we just do one traffic pattern. If we're able, I can ask to do a 360 to the left if we are on the bare side. Okay. And then full stop landing. Sounds good.

Okay, yeah. So now the checklist. I have the checklist in the iPad, in ForeFlight, documents folder. So we start with the cockpit preparation. Okay. So first thing, the rudder pedal, by the way. Is that good setting for you? Let's see. So the rudder pedals are adjustable. So you have a pedal setting. You pull it.

And then you can push your pedals and when they get back you can decide where to lock it. Got it. So right there, that adjustment. Exactly. Same for me. Then we don't have a parachute. The seatbelts are set and adjusted. The breathing is performed. The gastro-equipment for the switches are off. The fuse is in.

Then throttle, minimum. Throttle over, I discovered. I can switch the cockpit battery. I need minimum 13.1 volts. Checked. Avionics switch. We get the two computers on. The beacon light. And now I have four warnings. So left and right batteries are off. It's normal. The engine is off, so no inverter, no cooling. Thank you. They're also on.

Then I check all the caution and warning LEDs. I switch the first gallery, it comes to dark. Second one. And I can see the cockpit battery is still negative for the amps. And using the DC-DC, I connect the main circuit to the cockpit and it's charging. Radio and transceiver.

Well, finally I'm third year. The ground and the tower. And so we can close the canopy now. OK. And this inside, yes. So now before the engine starts, we need the motor temperature has to be more than minus 10 Celsius. So that's OK here.

There is no caution warning on the power management computer. Caution warning will be on the left. We are in the green for the temperature as well. And so now I will check the Oaks cooling system. It takes two seconds. You can hear. And we're liquid cooled. It's a glycol. Okay. Okay, so it works.

And now the engine starts. Just before the engine starts, I'll show you the energy management. So we have 600 volts. The two circuits, the left hand and right circuit, show you the cell voltage in millivolts. So basically we have 4 volts now. So the max and the min. This is the cell temperature in Celsius, 24 degrees max. Okay.

20 degrees min. And this is our energy for the flight. When the aircraft is fully charged, it's 46 kilowatts. And we have 43 kilowatts now. So it didn't almost charge. Didn't use much on the first flight. Yeah, the first flight, we made the 1.360 and full-step landing. So still, yeah, it was like...

We will manage the energy for sure. That mentions a limitation for a single battery operation. Do we actually see, for normal operation, the total current flow here anywhere? That would be here, I guess? So, yeah, here you have the left and the right amp, exactly. Okay. What kind of current flow would we expect to take a sample? So, uh...

You will see now, we will do a 10 kW test, it's 8 amps, and then I can show you when we test the override. Yep, okay, sounds good. Okay. So now, engine starts, so throttle override is covered, idle position, area, clear, brakes applied, and I switch the...

First step, ready position. You get the inverter ready. So it comes to dark. And the cooling, the main cooling system is working. Okay. And then I switch on the engine. So it starts turning. You can see there is a few RPM. Even if we are idle. And we have to check 10 kilowatts now. So the 10 kilowatts, you have the number here and the normal judge. 10 kilowatts.

We check the RPM in the VNW, press "reduce and run" And then you can see we are using 8 amps, the most. And then I do that. And we are good for the B4 taxi. So B4 taxi we set the flaps position to 1 Flaps 1 Trim setting is set. And then the flight control.

You want to do it yourself? Yes, I would like to just double check here. So you can feel the merchant. So it's fairly light, which I would expect. Yes, very light. Excellent. Also fairly light in flight? What? In flight, do you also find the controls are... So less, but they are very reactive, very responsive, yes. C-level and good QNH, and so we are ready for the taxi. Good, I will do the call.

All right. All right.

You want to do the taxi? Sure, of course. Hang on, there we go. And my understanding is we do have nose wheel steering in this aircraft, yes? Yes, so no brake. Not differential. So just use the bottom of the pedals then for steering. Yes, right. All right, very good. Tell you what, let's go ahead and go. Yes, let's go. So here we go, go forward a little bit. There we go. There we go.

Brakes are off, right? Yes, brakes off. If you want to test the brakes, we tested already both sides. Okay, we're about to start moving here. Yeah, and I just keep the stick. Alright, let me hand this to you. Oh yes. Alright, thank you. Okay, clear right and clear left. I'm just going to experiment a little bit here before we get to the turn. Better to know early.

So to the left... Oh, this is my home airport. Ah, yes, yes, yes, okay. You know, he said Juliet Papa Lima. All right. Oh, Juliet Papa. Yes, it's unusual, huh? So Juliet first. The winds are the other direction today, that's why.

Yeah, usually it's uniform. Yeah, so normally we'd be runway 131. But he knows that we don't have to do run-up, so it's straight to Yankee 1 probably. Yep. It looks like we're using about 3 amps here to taxi once we're moving. Yes, right, yes.

Now, I would have thought that the propeller would be completely idle when we pull it back to flight idle. Do you keep it rolling a little bit? Thanks for the ride. Thank you. You're welcome. So, originally, idle was no turn at all, so no RPM. Right. And we decided to modify it as, I think, for the people from outside, it's not very nice to...

They are not aware there is an aircraft with the engine on. And as well, even for the pilot, you know, when you're waiting for takeoff and you have nothing, no noise, no RPM, it's to the left. Pima, he said, yes, left. Okay. And take the next. I'll take the camera. Yes. And you can go ahead and taxi. You have the controls? I have my control, yes. You have the controls. You're going to take Mike here? Mike is good too, yes. Good. Okay.

Yeah, it was a bit strange the feeling of being ready for departure and no RPM. Yeah, because the first electric airplane I saw fly was at Oshkosh in 2011. Oh, okay. It was the PP Strait? No, it was the Laser. Oh, the Laser. Okay, yeah, yeah, yes. And that one, the propeller would stop, and that was a surprise to me at the time. But it made sense.

Question, so as you're taking picture and movie, do you want to arrange yourself part of the flight? Do you want me to do the flight? Oh, you know what? I would love to fly as much as you're willing to permit me. Oh, yeah, yes. So, yeah, if you'd like to... Okay.

So just think about the speed then. So the power setting is not full forward. We use 90-95, so behind the red arc. And the rotation speed is 60. You have the speed here, 60. Then we climb at 70. Okay. Glide speed is 75 and positive rate of climb, the flaps up. And we keep climbing at 70. All right. And you can do the takeoff and...

And then we will see I give you all the information sounds good and when you're at 70, what's the pitch attitude? Where is the horizon? Really? You still see some ground no, no, that's really so you're pitched up and you see only sky at that. Yes Sounds good to me. Okay. Okay. I said

And the tower, experimental hotel Bravo Sir, X-ray delta is holding short at Yankee 1, ready for departure, 1 traffic pattern. X-ray Hotel Bravo, see you, X-ray Delta, follow up to tower, make right traffic, runway 31, cleared for takeoff. Cleared for takeoff, 31, retro traffic, experimental Sir, X-ray delta. All right, do you want to take that? Yes. Thank you much. And we're clear on the right. Okay, landing light, transponder.

And upper disc area, yes. So this airplane looks a lot like the Piper Sport Cruiser. Oh, yeah, yes. Which I have flown and which I love. One of my favorite aircraft. Now, this plane is certified in what? It will be certified in Part 23. It's not an LSA, right? It's too heavy to be a light sport aircraft? Yeah, yes. So the max takeoff weight is...

About 900 kilograms. So we start to increase the weight. I'm going up to about the T or about how far? It's near the T probably. If you want, you can use your brake first and release to do the setting. Let's do that then. That's an option too. Just be... Yes, okay. All right. So here we go. Yes. Okay, 50...

I can release now if you want, yeah, yes, that's good. Keep going. I'll give you some more, yeah, like that. There we go. Here we go. Just like you said, the flight. Airspeed's alive. Got 45. 50, you can just release a little bit. And 60, the rotation. And here we go. Beautiful. Okay. Like a little bit of left crosswind. Yes, right. Yeah, I'm going to wait just a moment. Flaps up. We got 72, 73. 73.

Okay, flaps coming up. Got a bird below. Yeah, not much change in pitch as we raise the flaps, so that's really nice. I like that. Oh, got a bird there. I'm watching him. How do we need to reduce for a climb? Yeah, 70 will be good. 75, yeah. Like that is good. And you can keep climbing at 70. All right. Maybe some offset to the right for the neighborhoods. Yep. 3-2-0 on the heading.

Hey there's 70 and 77, wow. So what do we have for rear to climb right now? Looks like about maybe 7. So if you climb at 70 knots, so it can be steeper, it's about 850 per minute. Okay, yes that looks like we're 7 something. Yes. But we're not quite at 70. All right now we're back at about 79. We can talk of crosswinds. Yep, and we're going to be leveling off at 800 feet.

And that's an altitude of 800 and the power setting will be 40 kilowatts for the cruise Alright, let's come up on our 800 feet Ok, nice 40... is there a trim? Oh, the trim's on your side, I remember Cleared for the option Cleared for the option 31, X-Moms, I'll show you X-Moms Delta and if possible can we do a lap 360? That's approved

I think you're going to set it to the left, so I'll show you the data. OK, so you can do a 360 whenever you want. OK. So you can enjoy. And ask me if you need some trim, yes. Yeah, yeah. We're good at the moment. OK, starting to the left. Left's clear. Buzzing on the AGS. Wow, this is nice and smooth, well-balanced. Yes. Very light controls. I see this is wiggling just a little bit. Yeah, for the turn, we need more than 40, yes. OK.

to remain at 800, yes. Okay, then back into the pattern. The next value, so the max speed for the flaps is 80. Same value for flaps 1 and 2. And this is all in knots? Basically the white arc, yes. This is all in knots on the G5? Yes. Okay, I'm just slightly low, 740 feet. Yes. Go ahead and go up just a tiny bit. All right, now we're at 800.

Okay, and we are below 80 knots. Flaps going to the first position. Yes. Okay. And do you have a target airspeed on downwind after we have flaps? So, for now, the approach speed, the best, will be 70.

17 knots on final yeah all right and approximately i've got us at 20 kilowatts now is that yeah that's a good good setting all right just be careful the max for the first flaps officially it's 80. thank you just slightly yes there all right thank you it's very sensitive with the flaps one you it's easy to to to get speed so all right uh with the second flap that you really uh

break the speed. And we are clear for the option. So 70 for the approach and then 60 to 65 for the final. And this aircraft you really need to flare, I mean having the nose up. Right, okay. We don't want to be flat. Okay, more flaps? Yes, second flaps, yes, if you want. Okay, here we go. Bird below us, bird next to us.

Help me watch for birds here. All right, so we're back down to 70. And you said 60 to 65 on the final? 60 to 65, yes. All right.

Increasing power a little bit because we've got more flaps. Yes, some power, yes. We are a bit flat maybe. Now are we clear to land or clear for the eruption? Yeah, we are clear for the eruption and we do a full stop, yes. So we'll do a full stop. We forgot to remove the headsets, I'm sorry. Okay. Do you want to try it? No, that's okay. That's okay, I think. I'm a little low. You can add some power. It's okay. The speed is good. You can climb again. And I just...

I take the camera around the back guy for a second for you, sorry. Alright. And I just help you in case. Also, our Vasi is blue over green, so when the blue water is over the green tree, you're in pretty good shape. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 67, you said maybe 65? 65 is nice, yes. Alright, let's pitch up a little bit. Yes.

And the wind is almost calm. Go ahead and give me a little back trim. Just a little bit of back trim. Yeah. Nice. That's good. All right, there's 67. I'm a little fast. That's okay. You can idle reduce. Oh, we're not full flaps yet. Yeah, full flaps. You want to go full flaps? You are full flaps. Oh, okay. Got it. So idle? Idle, idle. Yes. All right. We're just going to hang out right here. Yes. Okay. Oh, nice. Beautiful. I love it. Peace landing.

Well, then we take the last. Yeah, yeah, of course. I see you've got the timer, so you're capturing the flight times. Yes. Okay, it's a bit busy today, eh? Everyone, suggest the Yankee to the ramp, and how are you looking at the depart? Right, Crossman?

Okay. I was thinking there were three inferments of flaps. That's why I got confused. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we were already at flaps. All right, good. So we're going back.

And you want me to do the taxi and you can do more pictures? Yes, please go ahead. I have the control, thank you very much. Of course. Yes, sir.

Do you know some French words? That's good. I studied French in high school. Ah, wow. Bravo. But I lived in Germany. I lived in Germany, so that ruined my French, unfortunately. So you speak German? Yeah, my German is better than my French. Okay. You speak German. Ah, yeah. You can start.

Yeah, in Switzerland. So you have to learn a second national language. And then, of course, you learn English. Right. Which part of the country did you grow up in? I'm sorry, the Italian, German, French? The French. I'm based in Geneva. Yep. Which is where you would say Genf in German. Genf, yeah, yeah. Beautiful city, by the way. Yeah, we are lucky. There's the lake, the mountain, and...

By the way, I'm the president of the flying club and school in Geneva. Nice. So we have three Piper Supercov with the ski. Right. We have a lot of Cherokee, Orto, Dakota, one Saratoga. And we just started the helicopter. We have the French helicopter, the Cabri, the G2. Okay. It's a nice, very nice aircraft for training.

Yep. Then I did my helicopter commercial in the Robinson R44 in February. February, okay. I started flying two years ago in helicopters, and I love it. It's great. That's great, yes. So here we can remove the headset, for sure. Yeah, that's all right. Yep.

And I see we've got, it looks like, 37 kilowatt hours left. And we started, what, at 43, right? So you're using about six per circuit in the traffic pattern.

And what was your feeling during the left 360? Very nice, well-balanced controls, very easy. And again, very reminiscent of flying the Piper Sport Cruiser. And I know that the designer of the B-23 was the same person who designed the Piper Sport Cruiser. So that's why there's a lot of similarities between the airplanes. Good designer. So what's your favorite part about the airplane? What do you like best?

And this one? My favorite part. Pardon me? The B-23, your energy. What do you like best about it? So, for me, yeah, having a stick, for a trainer, that's very good, I think. Yeah. For a new student, I mean, you can feel really the aircraft, and then it's probably easy to move to any other aircraft. And then, for the electric, the energy,

to be in a quiet environment helps to be focused as well watch these people

It helps to remain focused and not being overloaded. You know, to me, the interesting thing about flying it is that you forget very quickly that you're actually in an electric airplane. Yes, yes. When we're doing the pre-flight, when we're starting doing the checks and so on, it's very obvious then. Once you're done with those checks and you get to the takeoff line,

You forget that it's an electric airplane. Absolutely. I mean, because you don't want to train people only for electrical aircraft. We want the pilot to be trained for a normal aircraft, and it has to be a normal aircraft. Right. Okay. All right. So now, pitch off, first position, beacon off, so they know there is no risk. As I was climbing out of the plane, I was talking with Celine, who graduated, as I recall, from Georgia Tech with an engineering degree.

Roughly how many total hours have been placed on this aircraft? Ups hour now we have seven. 117.6. Yes.

That was the next step for me to write. 117 hours, okay. And has all flight testing been done on this particular aircraft or do you have other prototypes that you've used? So that's the second one. The second one, okay. Yeah, second one, yes. And how many hours of flight testing on the first one? The first one, I don't know. It was about $100 and about...

35 flight time and with this one we have now close to 70 hours flight time and uh

more than 100 ops 117. It just occurred to me part of the reason those numbers seem low to me is that this aircraft is already certified as a B-23 so you're making modifications to propulsion system you're not having to do all the testing. Exactly. We're not testing the airframe. Exactly. We're not testing the fuselage. Yeah. And this is only the hours that the engine was tested in the aircraft. Right. But um

What's important to know is that this engine has been testing on a test bench before. Right. And we have more than hundreds of hours of testing on test benches on the ground. Right. And it's only when we were 100% sure that this would work inside the aircraft that we integrated. That's why the numbers are quite low in terms of flight testing. They're risking a lot on the ground, those test benches. And when did you first start testing this engine? How many years ago or how long ago was that?

So I think this one started, I would say 2020, something like around that. Basically, it was integrated in the aircraft in 2022. First flight was in 2023. So the testing for the engine and this propulsion system that you just flew with started even before. What is the engine way roughly if you were to pick up just the engine?

Sasha, I think you have the answer to that question. What? The weight of the engine on its own. 50 kilos. 50 kilos. Yeah. When 30 is 50.

Yeah, between 30 for the engine and then with the gearbox, it will be between 30 and 50. Yeah. Got it. Because we had to design a special gearbox for this one that will not be integrated in the certified engine because the certified engine is a direct drive with six phase and slightly bigger. And what type of propeller do you use on this aircraft?

It's a duck propeller, three blades, and we designed the pitch to gain endurance during flight testing. Got it. Fixed pitch, yeah. After the flight, I was asked about my impression of the plane, and I said that, interestingly, once we got to the hold short line, I totally forgot it was an electric airplane, to which someone commented, good, that's what we wanted, which makes sense. It should operate just like any other airplane.

As I mentioned during the flight audio, the center stick was well balanced and took relatively little pressure to fly the plane. To get really fine control of the power setting, I did what I sometimes do in Cirrus aircraft.

That aircraft, like the B-23, has a throttle that sticks up from the center console and you operate it by pulling the lever forward and backward. Rather than holding the top of the throttle, I moved my hand down to the bottom of the lever. That way I could lean the throttle forward and backward in smaller increments than I could if my hand were at the top of the throttle's lever arm. The technique worked well, just as it does in the Cirrus.

Landing was straightforward. I targeted an approach speed of 65 knots. I did find myself low on final and I corrected by adding some power. I left some power on until I was in the flare since I didn't know how quickly the plane might drop when I pulled the power. I was able to get the nose up relatively high before we touched down and it was a great landing that was easy to accomplish.

We made just one landing as H-55 was running three or four demo flights on a single charge. Had I made a second landing, I probably would have pulled the power back when I was maybe 20 feet up in the air, which would have led to a shorter landing distance. Overall, the plane felt much like the Piper Sport Cruiser that I test flew at the Piper factory back in 2010. And that was my favorite LSA of the five or six LSA types that I've flown. And I really like this plane as well.

If you're interested in buying one, for early purchasers who buy now, the company is offering the plane for $431,000, and you can guarantee that price with just a $10,000 deposit. My understanding is the price will go up to half a million dollars for people who don't place one of these early orders. By the way, the plane will be certified for day VFR use only. But those are the conditions you typically have when teaching a student pilot how to land.

So overall, the plane feels like it's going to be an excellent fit for the flight training market. Now here are some final comments from co-founder and chairman of the board, Andre Borshberg.

Well, I'm curious. You've been a fighter pilot, an entrepreneur. You've got a world record. You've got a clean tech industry company. Is there any message or advice that you would give to young engineers or pilots who are inspired by your work and might want to help shape the future of aviation as you're doing? Well, of course, as we need for our... We may be a young generation because, you know, the old generation is used to work with existing technologies. And for the shift towards new technologies,

is not straightforward. We have seen this also when we were building the historical safari, we had to bring materials which were not used in the aviation industry, who realized and achieved our objectives that we had in terms of weight and well, that performance.

For this, we have been looking for engineering skills which were coming outside from the aerospace industry. And so we need the new generation in order to be able to bring its green technologies into this world which is pretty conventional.

the market is shaking snowy or that the momentum is gaining. That's clear. And maybe the motivation to work on solutions which are CO2 friendly is not the same depending on what or where you look at, in terms of geography.

But as I mentioned, the beginning of the attractiveness of electric professionals is not just reducing the impact of the environment, but it's really of technology which makes sense. And there are so many technical advantages that we will find, and he is finding his way into our nation. So we need new skills, we need investors, of course, in the Vini. We need government support, and that's what we find in different countries.

Spain is also white. Some countries are more advanced in this space than the only one. But when we combine the three together, that's how we'll be able to activate the chains towards the triple

André, thanks for your time today. Where do people go out on the web if they want to find out more information about BRM and about H55? We are H55. It's on LinkedIn, Instagram, so it's very easy to find us. But yes, please come see us. We communicate quite a lot about WhatsApp today, WhatsApp in the Midwest, about our trip, about the people we meet.

And the experience we made, so I hope you can share what we and Korea also present as a pilot. Andre, thanks so much. Great pleasure. Nice to meet you again. Bye-bye. And my thanks to Andre and H55 for setting up the flight for me and to their team members who answered my many, many questions. Electric airplanes definitely have a role in the future of aviation, and it was fun getting to fly one.

Again, if you'd like to see the video of my flight, go out on the web to aviationnewstalk.com slash support and sign up on Patreon to support the show at the $20 a month level.

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coming down to your side baby sliding upside down you can all