Over the weekend, the board of directors of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) created a new “associate member” category for electric and hybrid-propulsion aircraft. The reason for the new membership category is to hasten the worldwide development, growth and airworthiness certification of electric airplanes, which very well could play an important role in securing the future of general aviation.
That’s good news for would-be makers of future plug-in electric and electric-hybrid aircraft, who sorely need all the help they can get in changing long-held attitudes about aircraft design. For example, under current certification regulations, the twin-electric-motor Airbus E-Fan two seater could never be used for ab initio pilot training by virtue of the fact that, technically, it’s a twin.
