George Bye, the founder of a company called Bye Aerospace who proposed an electric-powered Skyhawk a few years ago, is shifting his focus to a two-seat trainer called the Sun Flyer. Bye and his business partner Charlie Johnson have formed a company called Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. to build an electric LSA in Colorado based on the pioneering work of Germany’s PC-Aero, which has been developing a small airplane known as the Elektra One powered by lithium batteries and solar cells.
Bye and Johnson plan to bring a prototype of the Sun Flyer to the Oshkosh airshow in July with the all-electric propulsion system they hope to introduce in the production version. The pair, however, face one big hurdle in their quest to crack the market for electric training aircraft: the FAA currently prohibits electric airplanes operating in the United States from carrying passengers.
