Both the pilot and passenger escaped unharmed
In what is a setback for the country’s effort to move away from flight, an plane has crashed into a lake in Norway. Reuters reports that the Alpha Electro airplane is owned and operated by Avinor, Norway’s state-run airport operator, and was being flown by its chief executive, Dag Falk-Petersen, when it crashed. In the process of committing flights to members of the Norwegian authorities, the CEO was on the day of the incident, and junior government minister Aase Marthe Horrigmo was on board at the moment. Both escaped from the crash .
The incident is a blow to Norway’s flight electrification plans. In a meeting last year, Falk-Petersen had said that he expected to start passenger flights in electric planes together with all flights created by 2040, by 2025. However, it is currently unclear what caused the crash. Forbes reports that the pilot stated as he approached the airport to 21, he lost all power. He estimated that the plate was traveling around 43mph when it struck the water.
The nation had planned to start commercial flights in 2025
Norway is the perfect test bed for electric flight. The nation is currently leading the way in the sale of electric cars, and its distant islands and fjords mean that its national air routes are some of the busiest in Europe, according to Forbes, meaning it has a sizable short-haul domestic flight market with the potential to be electrified. This power stems from environmentally friendly resources , with Reuters reporting that as far as 98 percent of the country’s electricity comes from hydro power. However, this investment in energy has come from the large wealth fund, which currently includes over $ 1 trillion in funds generated by excess earnings from the oil industry of the country of the country.
The airplane was an Alpha Electro G2 made by Pipstrel, also it is the first electrical two-seater aircraft to have been approved for industrial production, according to Forbes. It has a range of around 81 miles, and also a maximum flight time of one hour. Reuters noted that Norway began this past year testing the airplane.
Electrifying aviation is a challenging task. Compared to jet gas, the batteries of today are amazingly heavy, making it tricky to equip a airplane without weighing it down. On a per weight basis, jet fuel provides around 43 times more energy than an equivalent battery. A lot of companies are working to overcome these problems and to decrease air flight’s reliance on fossil fuels. These companies range from small startups such as Lilium, which completed the first test of its aircraft this year, to more established players such as Boeing and Airbus.
