Yesterday, a Cessna C208 Caravan lifted off from the AeroTEC Flight Test Center at the Grant County International Airport (MWH) in Moses Lake, Washington, being pulled aloft by a magniX 500 electric motor. The 750-horsepower (560 kW) magni500 propulsion system is the largest to fly so far, and seemed to pull the ten-passenger craft easily, lifting off early and establishing a stable rate of climb. At last year‘s Paris Air Show, Roei Ganzarski, CEO of magniX, guided visitors through the promising features of his firm’s two motors and its magniDrive inverter/motor controller. All three products, as shown in the video, have found homes on retrofitted and new airframes. Thursday’s flight went well. Ganzarski told reporters, “The flight went as I like all flights to go, uneventful. There [were] no issues — it worked exactly as planned, in fact performed a little better than planned. We landed with more battery than expected and the pilot really performed greatly.” There are compromises involved, …
