Modern Flying Photos

Airbus E-Fan: The Electric Aircraft

Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 09:42 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

Airbus, through its subsidiary VoltAir, is actively developing the E-Fan, a series of electric and hybrid-electric aircraft, with prototypes already undergoing flight tests.
Future production plans include the E-Fan 2.0 (an electric two-seater) and E-Fan 4.0 (a hybrid-electric four-seater), which will be manufactured at a new factory in France in a few short years.
The E-Fan aircraft are powered by electrically driven ducted fans.
This initiative represents a significant strategic investment for Airbus, focused on advancing knowledge and technology in electric propulsion.

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The Airbus hybrid is sexy, fast and coming soon.

Airbus subsidiary VoltAir has been flying this E-Fan prototype for a little over a year to test the possibilities for pure electric-powered flight.

In a few short years the E-Fan 2.0 electric two-seater and E-Fan 4.0 hybrid-electric four-seater will be built at a new factory in France. Read more about the new factory here.

As the name suggests, the E-Fan prototype (shown here) and production iteration will be powered by electrically driven ducted fans.

Here is an artist’s impression of the production iteration of the Airbus E-Fan.

At this point E-Fan is still a very big bet for Airbus, but knowledge gained about electric propulsion makes it a gamble worth taking.

For more on the E-Fan, read up about the advances in propulsion technology and its electric motor here.

A pilot for more than three decades, Craig Fuller is owner and CEO of FLYING parent company Firecrown Media.