Hello to a New Way of Flight

Planes that emit zero C02, do not use lead-based fuel, and are 1,000 times quieter than traditional propeller-driven aircraft is the promise of the eFlyer 2 and eFlyer 4 from Bye Aerospace, Inc. While reducing negative externalities to the public, the efficiency of an electric powertrain significantly reduces the cost of the flight to approximately 1/5 of a similar piston-motor driven airplane, according to George Bye, CEO & Founder of Bye Aerospace.

The e-Flyer 2 isn’t a pie-in-the-sky dream as prototypes are currently flying and Part 23, Amendment 64 FAA certification is planned in late 2021. Bye explains that the target market for the eFlyer 2, a 2-passenger plane, is pilot training. He indicates a demand for 804,000 new commercial pilots over the next 20-years. With a cost of $150,000, training expense is a barrier for aspiring pilots.

The low operational costs of the e-Flyer 2 (electricity less than 1/10 of aviation fuel, fewer parts to maintain, etc.) make it ideal for flight schools. Bye Aerospace has hit its target as evidenced by the hundreds of pre-orders for the eFlyer 2 from various flight training schools.

As the first one to apply for the electric flight certification, Bye Aerospace is on the leading edge of a larger aircraft industry trend towards electrification.* The long-term societal disruption the eFlyer represents is the compression of space through low-cost, relatively short-range air travel. The eFlyer 4, a 4-passenger plane, is projected to have an operational cost of about $30 per hour compared to approximately $150 per hour for a piston-driven propeller plane.

A Rough Business Model for Regional Air Travel #

With a speed of 175 knots per hour, the eFlyer 4 could cover a 100-mile radius in about 30-minutes for about $15. Assuming a pilot salary of $120 per hour, then a 100-mile, one-way three-passenger trip would be about $25 ($5 per person operational cost plus $20 for the pilot’s salary).

Although this would cost over $12,000 per year ($50 round trip times 250 workdays) and would seem prohibitively expensive at first glance, the cost savings on housing would be even greater. For instance, the difference in median home prices between Silicon Valley ($1.16M) and neighboring Merced County ($268k) is more than $800,000, according to Zillow; a savings of more than $36,000 per year at typical mortgage rates.

Could This Tech Enable New Kinds of Environmentally-Friendly Communities? #

In turn, the environmental benefits of low-noise, zero-emission aircraft could impact the way new communities are developed. It’s not too difficult to imagine a car-free community (e.g. 1,000 home Culdesac in Tempe, AZ) on relatively low-cost, rural land developed around an all-electric airport. In this scenario, the bottlenecks would probably be a shortage of urban airports, as well as having enough pilots to meet demand.

In the long-term, there are many entities that are looking at ways to create short take-off and vertical take-off aircraft (stay tuned for future posts on a couple of these approaches) that would make it easier to create vertiports in urban areas. Further, automated flight control, eventually eliminating the need for a pilot, is being worked on by many entities and led by NASA (see this PDF presentation from a recent NASA conference on the topic). Automation would be a huge game-changer in terms of the economics of flight.

There are many steps to get to the George Jetson-like future of automated and vertical flight. Bye is well-positioned to take advantage of that future as his approach to solving the near-term problem of training is a great building block to what is needed for more general electric flight.

And, this is just another milestone for Bye and his company, as they have a track record of designing cutting-edge electric aircraft, such as the Silent Falcon Solar Electric UAV. And, based on their work with Oxis Energy to improve flight distance by 50 to 100% through improved battery energy density, larger planes and on-demand air-taxi service are sure to be on their roadmap.

Footnote #

*It looks like Pipistrel, a Solvenian company also has an electric flight trainer plane, Alpha Electro, and an electric motorglider, Taurus ELECTRO, that are available today. Pipistrel suggests the Alpha Electro is less than half of the cost of a traditional trainer airplane. They are available for rental in at least one location in the U.S. (although the rental rate (PDF) probably reflects their novelty, as it seems to be slightly more expensive than a comparable trainer).

**[Added 4/7/21 – The upfront cost of capital was not included for either the Bye Aerospace or the California High-Speed Rail examples above.]