Harbour Air’s ePlane, the De Havilland Beaver with an electric motor is tentatively scheduled to fly on Dec.11. “Harbour Air and magniX will unveil the world’s first Beaver seaplane retrofitted with a 750 horsepower all-electric magni500 propulsion system for the inaugural test flight…,” the company said in a statement. “The prototype will take flight from our Richmond (YVR South) location.” Canadian Aviator Magazine has done an in-depth report on the aircraft that will appear in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue and will be at the inaugural flight.
The technical team has completed the installation and ground testing of the system and Harbour Air founder Greg McDougall will be at the controls for the test flight. The flight test is heavily dependent on good weather conditions. Transport Canada’s test flight permit has stringent weather requirements. Assuming the weather is good enough (so far it looks like clouds and showers), McDougall will take off from the Fraser River in a well publicized event. Harbour Air, one of the world’s largest seaplane airlines, intends to electrify its full fleet for revenue service on its short haul routes on the West Coast.