MOSES LAKE, Washington—Eviation Aircraft is set to begin high speed taxi tests of the all-electric Alice aircraft in coming days as part of final preparations for first flight, says the company’s new CEO, Greg Davis.
Flight tests of the 16,500 lb. Alice, a clean-sheet nine-passenger aircraft designed to fly 440 nm on an 8,300 lb. battery pack, originally was targeted for late 2021 from the company’s Arlington, Washington, development and assembly site. However, earlier this year Eviation elected to move flight-testing to Moses Lake, where it can take advantage of the quieter airspace and longer runways.
Preflight high-speed taxi tests are expected to culminate in runs up to rotation speed. “You get the aircraft right up there and then you essentially do a very gentle rejected takeoff. We have a 13,500 ft.-long runway so you don’t have to go hard on the brakes,” says Davis.
Moses Lake also has a 10,000 ft.-long runway and three shorter ones. Arlington’s longest runway, in contrast, is 5,300 ft. long.
“The high-speed taxi-testing is going to be a critical milestone for us so we can validate all our aerodynamic models with those speeds. And then first flight proves that the system is integrated right,” adds Davis, whose move from company president to full-time CEO was confirmed on Sept. 16.
Davis became interim CEO in February, taking over from co-founder Omer Bar-Yohay. Prior to joining Eviation in 2021, Davis held management positions at Viking Air in Canada and at Marshall Aerospace in the UK.
