A new company based in Shanghai called Yuneec (pronounced “unique”) brought its two-place electric airplane to EAA AirVenture. The $90,000 aircraft, with enough battery power to fly 1.5 hours, will begin deliveries in late 2010 if development goes well.
Yuneec’s parent company has expertise in electric motors and has built hundreds of thousands of radio-controlled electric aircraft models. The Yuneec e430 comes currently with two battery packs; one will allow the aircraft to fly for 2.5 hours, but only the pack lasting 1.5 hours will initially be offered to the public.
Sales and marketing are conducted from England by Clive Coote, who was master of ceremonies for a presentation of the aircraft in Oshkosh July 28. Coots said the company is ready to ship $9,000 paragliders powered by an electric motor built by Yuneec.
The e430 is powered by a 40 Kw (54 hp) brushless electric motor system using three specially produced lithium polymer battery packs.
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