Leading the charge | Can electric aircraft make a difference?

FlyOnE, for example, has already successfully aided in the certification and delivery of new purpose-built all-electric training aircraft to flight schools around the country after Shepparton-born Ellis founded the company in 2019. FlyOnE is the sole distributor of the Pipistrel Alpha Electro, the world’s first purpose-built zero-emissions training and demonstrator aircraft, in Australia and continues to work in the development and distribution of electric aircraft locally.

Similarly, Sydney-based Dovetail Aviation is spearheading the conversion of existing airframes to operate with electric engines, including a 12-seat Sydney Seaplanes Cessna Caravan, which hopes to soon soar above Sydney Harbour. Dovetail is also the only local distributor of MaginX electric aircraft engines, which itself was founded in Australia in 2009 before expanding to become a global company headquartered in the USA.

Swinburne University’s Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub), established in 2021, is one of the numerous Australian research institutions turning a focus on future aviation technology. “The reality is, we’ve passed the point where traditional propulsion methods in aviation are going to be acceptable,” says AIR Hub manager of strategic partnerships Peter Smith. “We have the UN, governments, environmental groups, airlines, all on board. The fuel-guzzling jet engine model needs to be made redundant within this century, and ideally, as soon as possible,” he explains. “Sustainable aviation fuel, which is a like-for-like substitution for jet fuel which lowers emissions, is one solution that is very fitting for large aircraft and long-haul travel. A lot of great work has been done on making these fuels cheaper and more readily available.”

However, SAF doesn’t provide the same radical zero-emission model that is on offer with electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft, Smith says. “So when we look at other options, we’re looking at two other lines of thinking: electric batteries and hydrogen. And both of these are being actively explored, researched and developed in Australia today.”

A new frontier

Aviation has not seen a dramatic redesign in decades, essentially since the advent of the jet engine. As the industry shifts its focus back to lowering emissions after navigating through the stormy waters of COVID-19, the allure of electric propulsion is now extremely attractive to both shareholders and travellers. As such, electric propulsion is a highly exciting, albeit complicated, development for the sector, according to Ellis.

“We really have to completely rethink the mechanism from the ground up and change the way that we’re designing an aircraft to accommodate for completely different power technology,” he explains. “So when we started doing that, and we start looking at low drag, high efficiency, airframes using carbon composite materials. And what we found is that, even with today’s battery technology, these airframes can create great results, particularly for smaller aircraft, training planes, and low-volume RPT.”

The electric aircraft in operation in Australia today, supplied by either FlyOnE or Dovetail, boasts a flight time of about 45 minutes when accounting for mandatory emergency fuel reserves, which is perfect for their current use in tourist flights and training flights. The Alpha Electro, for example, is used in Australian flight schools for ab initio training, or initial flight training, which goes over the basics of operating the plane.

“Using the technology already available and certifiable today, we have two other projects in the works that could see flight time extended to about two hours with a range of up to 100 nautical miles”, Ellis says, “This would allow for students to complete more advanced navigation flights, too.”

However, past this, electric aircraft are highly limited in their capacity. Today’s batteries are only about 2 per cent as energy dense as jet engines, and loading up more heavy batteries onto an aircraft has the adverse effect of impacting take-off weight and range. Ellis says this is likely to continue to be the case “for a very long time”.

“While it’s possible we see advancements in battery energy density, and we have brilliant minds working on it, from what I’ve seen working in the space, those changes are likely to be slow at this stage.”

Despite these limitations, Ellis sees several practical applications for electric aircraft in Australia and abroad in the short-to-medium term. “Flight training is, of course, the main one,” he explains. Australia has a relatively large and booming flight training and general aviation sector, meaning that despite our physical size there is a significant market for electric aircraft here, Ellis adds.

“We already have a number of electric trainers flying in Australia and have had fantastic feedback from clients. These planes are cheaper to run, they’re quieter, they’re brand new and great to fly, and there’s no vibration, no oil spills or fuel smells. They’re clean and shiny. Neighbours of the airport appreciate the electric aircraft used in circuit training because they’re so quiet compared to their jet engine or turboprop counterparts. For an organisation or airline to say they care about decarbonising aviation and then not push to transition flight training into electric aircraft – it just doesn’t make sense. The technology we have available today could cut aviation emissions immediately at this level of the sector, it’s perfect for this purpose, and there’s no need to wait around for developments in fuel cells or battery technologies.”

“The other application I see in Australia, as well as other markets like Asia and Europe where big populations are spread across major centres that are closer together, is what we call the ‘micro charter’ sector,” Ellis continues. “It’s similar to the eVTOL model without the complications of an interconnected ecosystem. It would look like 4–5 people chartering a 6-seater aircraft to travel from point to point. A 90-minute drive would become a 23-minute flight, and it’ll be quick, quiet, and cheaper than you’d expect.”

Similarly to Ellis, Dovetail Aviation’s CEO David Doral sees Australia’s complicated and vast landscape as both a challenge and an opportunity in the development of electric aircraft. “Australia hasn’t had a major role to play in the development of aerospace technology in the last few decades, but there’s now an opportunity to change that,” he says.

“Australia has one of the largest fleets of small aircraft because of the nature of the country and the needs of its population. When considering the magnitude of the country, its natural landscapes and resources, its long distances coupled with the lack of ground infrastructure, Australia really is a natural market and testbed for these kinds of technologies. Because there is now an opportunity for Australia to play a significant role in the development of this technology, not just to meet internal demand but to export it overseas and expand a growing Australian industry.”

Perhaps unlike Ellis, Doral foresees a far larger market for electric aircraft, having partnered with Rex Airlines to convert its ageing Saab 340s into electric propulsion to use on regional routes. If you’ve been paying attention to the headlines, you would know that Rex went on to purchase a 20 per cent stake in Dovetail, shoring up its position on future regional electric operations.

“Smaller regional communities will be the biggest benefactors of electrification in aviation,” he says. “Airlines operating on low-density regional routes have gone out of business time and time again in the last two decades, while the rest of the industry has seen a massive boom. It’s the only segment of aviation that has shrunk in the last 20 years – pandemic aside.”

“And that’s because there are fewer passengers and a high cost of operation, which just isn’t sustainable. But electric planes bring down operating and maintenance costs dramatically, which allows not only for a sustainable business model but will ultimately facilitate growth.” In fact, Doral claims that regional routes could see a cost reduction of up to 40 per cent under electrification, which, in turn, would allow the sector to increase ten times over.

Brand new or old and gold

At face value, you could choose to see Dovetail and FlyOnE as bitter rivals, gunning to be the go-to Australian distributor of a fully certified, scalable, and profitable electric aviation product. And you might be right, to some extent. But it appears both companies are taking a different approach using the same technology, which will see them ultimately operate in entirely different sectors of the market.

“While a lot of energy and resources has been put into the conversion of existing legacy airframes with electric engines, we aren’t really getting involved, for us the technology just isn’t where it needs to be yet,” says FlyOnE’s Ellis. “That venture faces a whole heap of hurdles, the main being storing more energy onboard without adding too much weight and therefore compromising the airframe and payload. This significantly impacts the range of the aircraft and makes any real-world application for dated airframes with new-age engines very limited. I looked at the numbers myself when I started on this journey and decided that there’s not really a business use case for legacy airframes being converted to electric for this reason. Whereas we have two-seater training aircraft in the air right now, today, and we’ve done 50,000 commercial kilometres in those planes.”

In nearly an identical but inverse story, Dovetail’s Doral, who is heavily focused on the conversion of existing aircraft into electric propulsion, says: “When I first started on this journey, the plan was to develop an aircraft for this market from scratch. We explored it, and I was involved in undertaking developmental tests, wind tunnel testing, and so on. However, I found that the process there would take an awfully long time and a lot of money in research, development, construction and rollout. Where we now see a better opportunity is in adapting existing aircraft to operate using new technologies, including electrification. It might take some trial and error, but we think we can get a product to market a lot faster by modifying existing aircraft, as this is going to shave years off our timeline towards certification. These aircraft are tried and tested. We’re just changing the engines and, in the process, lowering their emissions.”

Another piece to the puzzle

Notably, Doral doesn’t entirely disagree with Ellis. “All-electric powered aircraft are limited, there is a niche market for these, but it’s small. Their range is limited, so they’ll have very short flights.” This was another surprising sentiment from someone so heavily invested in commercialising this sector in Australia.

“There is a market, for sure, but it’s limited. And as such, we are focusing right now on first bringing a battery-powered aircraft to market, like what we are doing with Sydney Seaplanes. But ultimately, longer-term, we will see bigger planes completing longer flights, and for that, you need to create electricity onboard. So that’s where hydrogen fuel cells come into play.”

Of course, the use of hydrogen as a fuel source in aviation comes with major stipulations and regulatory hurdles, as alluded to by Ellis. However, it is the cornerstone of the Dovetail/Rex partnership that pledges to see Rex’s 34-seat Saabs flying on electricity as soon as 2026. “Over the next two to three years, we plan to facilitate the electric conversion of both the Cessna Caravan and the Beechcraft KingAir, which each seat up to 15 people and are very common aircraft types here in Australia. However, our hydrogen fuel cells will be key to our plans to convert Rex’s Saab 340s with electricity-powered engines,” he says.

While this will, of course, be subject to regulatory scrutiny, Doral says the company sees this “as a possibility by 2026, if not earlier.”

Meanwhile, FlyOnE’s next steps look a little different, having already brought a tangible product to the market. The company hopes to have 70 electric aircraft operating in Australia by the time 2024 rolls around, mark 1,000,000 commercial hours in electric aircraft, and introduce electric infrastructure at every airport.

“Something to note is that we’ve brought our first product to the Australian market already and felt some of the natural pushback that occurs with bringing a radical new product to a market with plenty of traditional options,” Ellis says. “What I can foresee is a lot of companies, local or otherwise, that are still building up to a launch to market will soon face the pushback that we’ve seen, and they might not be ready for that, and we’ll be a few steps ahead.”

However, any rivalry aside, Ellis believes there is plenty of room for Australia to shine in this sector and help to develop local technology that could have a “very different and very useful” business case overseas. “In Europe, for example, between 30–40 per cent of all flights could be substituted with electric planes in just a few short years, which opens up a massive economic opportunity, and it’s realistic,” he says.

“We are involved in the development of prototypes that will ultimately service these markets, and we, an Australian company, have an opportunity to be involved in that before the bigger operators even realise, and they’ll be scrambling to do something about it.

“Electric aviation won’t fix everything, it won’t decarbonise all of aviation in one swing, but there’s a massive opportunity for Australia to be involved in something that will become very big and very important, and we want to lead that.”