Could This ELECTRIC Plane CHANGE Float Planes Forever?

Air travel is responsible for a massive amount of pollution around the world, but for communities split by lakes and other large bodies of water, float planes are still the quickest way to get around. And while electric airplanes for long haul flights are still very much a pipe dream, for short-haul and arterial routes where float planes might spend minutes rather than hours in the air, electric propulsion is a viable way to keep communities connected without causing huge emissions.

And that's where the eBeaver from Harbour Air comes in. Powered by a motor from Magnix, it's the first prototype float plane developed by Harbour Air as it plans to electrify all of its small float planes.

We got to chat to Erika Holtz at Everything Electric - and witness the plane taking off for ourselves (and of course, we took our cameras so you could see too!)

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00:00 - Introduction
02:27 - Introduction to the eBeaver - Fleet hopes
03:03 - Technical Specs
03:50 - eBeaver's primary service routes
05:00 - Maintenence schedule
06:08 - Plans for electirfication of the entire fleet
06:59 - Why the eBeaver is viable commercially
07:47 - Differences to the beaver ICE
08:51 - Pilot certification
09:56 - What's noticiable about this prototype
11:23 - Charging
12:55 - Can you help?
13:37 - This is a Harbour Air Led Project
14:11 - Oshkosh - and future adventures
14:38 - Thanks - give Turbo a hug!
14:58 - Take Off
16:38 - Thanks, and Goodbye!

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Links:

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Presenter, Script, Audio: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
Camera, Editor, Colorist: Michael Horton
Art and Animation: Erin Carlie
Producer: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
© Transport Evolved LLC, 2024
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[flavoie]

Yay! 🎉 Two of my favorite things: Beaver float planes and electric drive🎉 Lower maintenance is a big plus!!! Great info and interview!

[BillCarlson]

I love this!! Erika was clearly super knowledgeable and passionate about the electrification of air transport. Can't wait to take an electric flight one day. :)

[barriewebster]

It’s so thrilling to see you feature Harbour Air’s EV venture on your channel. Harbour Air is essential to meet our transportation needs on the BC south coast and is incredibly useful for getting to and from Victoria and Vancouver. The Otter and Twin Otter are the backbone of this service. When they are eventually converted, not only will the travel be emissions-free, the folks who live on the waterfront next to the designated YWH runways in Victoria will be spared the associated fuel odours as the planes take off.

[HarbourAirSeaplanes]

Thank you for stopping by to visit our all-electric eBeaver and connecting with our brilliant engineer, Erika Holtz! We look forward to buzzing the skies again very soon!

[AdrianoCasemiro]

Transport evolved Indeed! All I can say is that this is the best source of information for transport electrification. And yes, I am an aviation nerd. Great job, Nikki.

[mobiusone]

Being an aviation nerd, I find this incredibly facinating. It makes sense for SHORT HAUL trips in smaller planes. Especially vs the old school radial engines. The PT6 turboprop will be hard to beat, but this system has some potential. Cool video!! (Interview with Turbo and HRH soon?!)

[MarcoNierop]

Harbor Air is working on this for many years already, 10 December 2019 the first e-Beaver flight took place.

I was a bit surprised they do not have the charging issue sorted out better, with only one 60Kw charger and a clumsy mobile charger. Here in The Netherlands we see more and more electric boats, and fast chargers appear in several harbors around the country.

[capnkirk]

I've been following Harbour Air for several years.
De Havilland Canada has (I believe) a real opportunity to electrify some of the world's most iconic aircraft using the trail being blazed here. Given a small, "green" and relatively low-cost, LOW-NOISE solution I strongly suspect there would be a LOT of demand.
Air travel is ripe for disruption, and unlike cars it is not likely to be "more of the same" since airports are already capacity-constrained around the world. A lot of the rush is for EVTOLs, but an electric version of any of a number of original DHC aircraft (i.e. DASH 7) COULD have a shorter path to certification as electric since it would be mostly a powerplant change.

[pfunk]

Not to mention most propeller planes still use LEADED fuel, including harbour air

[FordGTMkIV]

I lived in the San Juan Islands in the 80s and 90s and took Harbor Air to/from Seattle now and then. The Beaver is a great plane and theirs are very well maintained (I think they were made in the 40s). So glad they are making this investment. Thanks for the great story.

[MrChris]

Love seeing the progress in electric flight!

Though it was also interesting to briefly hear about the port side charging network needs.

[gusbarber]

This was great I loved it. No one else at the show thought to do a story on the EBeaver that I know of. I have been following this story for a long time so it was nice to have the update.
It also made me chuckle the thought of Nikki hugging the mascot lol.

[DaveRead-uu]

Wow - excellent video Nikki. That company is impressive and we hope a lot of charging and aeronautical engineers see this and are motivated. Again, great video (much better than an Air BNB one :).

[triplec]

Another excellent video! Kudos to Harbor Air, Magnix and, of course, Nikki. The bulk of humanity worldwide lives in or very near a coastal community. There is a huge market potential for providing cost-effective and convenient transportation between coastal cities and between islands for places as diverse as Hawai'i, Scandinavia, Southeast U.S., , the Philippines, and the Mediterranean basin. While float planes work well in certain geographies, the much larger opportunity will likely be for new aircraft such as the Jekta PHA-ZE 100 which will be amphibious and the Regent Viceroy sea glider which is a wing-in-ground-effect vehicle. Both can be built as pure electric or hydrogen hybrid.

[Russwig]

255... Neat! Complete and efficient. Can't wait for the utilized design of this tech. Keep Evolving!

[davidpenlington]

Great to hear people who know what their talking about.

[leebiggs]

I'm sure Kenmore Air here in Puget Sound is following this closely as they operate Beavers to Victoria, Vancouver, and the San Juan islands as well.

[louisjov]

Float and Bush planes are ubiquitous here in Alaska. I would love to see a discussion on these in more remote places

[MarkSpohr]

I recently flew in a (very old) Beaver from Key West to Dry Tortugas National Park. This would be a great route for an electric Beaver. Short flight, low altitude (saw lots of turtles, etc.)

[irnbrukidsm]

Absolutely brilliant informative video which demonstrates a new future