EMBRAER’S ELECTRIC-powered demonstrator has made its first flight. The EMB-203 Ipanema-based testbed has begun a flight test programme at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto facility close to São Paulo.
The Ipanema –a single-seat agricultural aircraft – is usually powered by a Lycoming IO-540 six-cylinder piston engine, which has been substituted by a WEG electric motor and batteries supplied by Energias de Portugal.