Norway and the flight for electricity

Norway is taking further the electricity challenge. The country’s transport minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen took a special flight in a new plane that was completely powered by electricity.

The flight only lasted a few minutes and the cockpit was only for two seats, but it is a first step in the direction Norway is taking. By 2040 all short-haul flights are intended to be powered by electricity.

The novelty comes from Slovenian company Pipistrel, and at the time there are no bigger aircrafts in construction. Dag Falk-Petersen, head of airport company Avinor, who took the flight with Solvik-Olsen, commented to the press that a few years ago, Norway’s aviation chiefs had a sceptical view of all-electric aviation. «Then about three years ago our board of directors went down to Airbus, in Toulouse. Airbus told us they had been doing a lot of work in this area already. And Boeing, through [aircraft maker] Zunum Aero and also with Nasa. That’s why we decided to have a programme to electrify the flights in Norway».

Avinor itself runs 46 airports in Norway due to the small islands that need to be connected to mainland and to ice often blocking roads in winter. The first bigger aircraft, with 25 seats, should be introduced in 2025.