The Colorado firm is among a small group of developers working to bring all-electric pilot-training aircraft through certification.
US start-up Bye Aerospace is nearing the first flight of its two-seat all-electric eFlyer 2 training aircraft and envisions a clear path to certification – possibly as soon as next year under new Federal Aviation Administration rules for light-sport aircraft.
The company is also seeking to secure more investment, predicting the aviation industry will need many more pilots, and thus many more training aircraft, in the coming decades to meet increasing demand for air travel.
“We’re only just several weeks away from first flight, if everything goes well,” Bye chief executive Roderick Zastrow tells FlightGlobal. “It could be longer, but it’s a matter of weeks.”
At its Centennial airport site near Denver, Bye is wrapping up final assembly, structural integration work and system testing. It is wiring the eFlyer 2’s low-voltage (28V) system – which feeds components like avionics and lights — and the high-voltage (up to 800V) system, which powers a 125kW (167hp) Safran ENGINeUS 100B1 electric motor.
That Safran motor is already certificated in Europe.
“We’ve completed all the structural testing to make sure we have a strong fuselage and wing… The flight controls, the brakes, the instrument panel integrations are all complete,” Zastrow says.
Flight testing will reveal the eFlyer 2’s exact capabilities, but an “extremely aerodynamically efficient design” (developed using Siemens software), lightweight composite materials and “high-energy density” Magnix-supplied batteries should provide performance similar to a Cessna 172.
Bye aims for batteries to provide eFlyer 2 with 2h of flight endurance, plus a 30min reserve. “If we can get [1.7h] with the batteries, we think we’ll have succeeded for sure,” Zastrow says, adding that the batteries should charge in about 30min between “typical” training flights.
The aircraft has Garmin G500 TXi touchscreen avionics, composite structures from Toray Composite Materials and propellers from Florida’s Sensenich Propellers. Other suppliers include M4 Engineering (composite doors), Flying S (composite tail assembly) and Risse Racing (nose gear, motor mounts).
The two-seater competes with traditional trainers like 172s and Piper Archers, and with new all-electric types like Textron-owned Pipistrel’s already certificated Velis Electro and Czech firm BRM Aero’s in-development Bristell B23 Energic.
Bye insists the eFlyer 2’s maintenance and energy costs will come in at 80% less than for petrol-powered trainers. The company is also developing the four-seat eFlyer 4 and has discussed a possible future 6-9-seat variant.
CERTIFICATION PLAN
Bye in 2018 submitted the eFlyer 2’s design and certification plans to the FAA and, shortly after, completed about 100 flights of a proof-of-concept demonstrator.
It has been seeking certification under Amendment 64 of FAA Part 23 rules, which apply to aircraft with 19 or fewer seats and maximum gross take-off weights not exceeding 8,618kg (19,000lb). The FAA finalised Amendment 64, which replaced prescriptive rules with performance-based standards, in 2016 to streamline small-aircraft certification.
Even so, the process is “time-consuming, cumbersome” and takes years to complete – requiring companies to write dozens of test plans and submit reports for FAA approval, Zastrow says. Bye has already completed “most” of that work and has “maybe a couple of years” remaining.
But another option is now suddenly available: certification under the FAA’s new Part 22 rule for “light-sport aircraft”, which takes effect on 24 July and allows manufacturers to themselves confirm that their designs meet regulatory requirements.
“Part 22 standards allow us to certify the aircraft organically and make a statement of certification – so long as we have the documentation that we performed all the necessary tests,” Zastrow says. “We’re able to then declare that our plane is certifiable and we can declare that we’re ready to start producing the aircraft.”
For now, Bye intends to plod on under Part 23. But it might shift to approval under Part 22, in which case Zastrow says certification and first delivery could come within 10 months, adding, “We’re pretty sure we have a very clear path to certification”.
The company is meanwhile seeking more investment, with Zastrow predicting the first flight will spark additional interest.
Bye already holds agreements to sell 1,124 eFlyer 2s and 4s, of which 40% are backed by “paid nonrefundable deposits” and the balance covered under letters of intent. Customers include KLM Flight Academy and US flight training providers SkyBorne Airline Academy, Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology, and Flex Air.
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