Amphibious aircraft manufacturers JEKTA and Elfly have begun flight testing of their respective models – the PHA-ZE 100 and Noemi.
The testing marks a milestone for electric amphibious aircraft and particularly in the development of both Swiss startup JEKTA’s Passenger Hydro Aircraft – Zero Emissions 100 (PHA-ZE 100) and Elfly’s No Emissions (Noemi) aircraft.
“After extensive virtual trials and simulations, our engineers are excited to begin flying the 1:9 prototype. The flight testing marks an important milestone on our journey to bring next-generation electric amphibious aircraft to operators globally,” explained JEKTA CEO and co-founder George Alafinov.
The remote controlled 1:9 scaled prototype of JEKTA’s zero emissions amphibious aircraft uses a distributed electric powerplant to draw energy from onboard batteries. Testing will verify the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic configurations of the production aircraft.
Flight tests, which are being trialled at an undisclosed location, are expected to last until September 2025.
Paving the way for a full-scale prototype
Following on from digital simulations, real-world testing is expected to deliver valuable data on how the aircraft performs during landing, taxiing and taking off from water.
“Flying the scaled models and modified ultralights moves JEKTA one step closer to flying a full-scale prototype of the PHA-ZE 100, confirming that we’re on track with plans to introduce our new aircraft to the global air transport network in 2030,” added Alafinov.
Two amphibious flying boats are currently being modified as proof-of-concept aircraft and will be used subsequently to validate the combined digital and real-world data.
The go anywhere plane
The go anywhere planeMeanwhile, on Friday 13 June Elfly flew a 1/5 scale model of its Noemi amphibious aircraft in Norway. The model, which has a wingspan of approximately 4m, took off and landed from a lake in Tonsberg in front of a crowd of spectators including investors, clients and partners.
Eric Lithun, CEO, Elfly said: “We had a fantastic day! The first flight of the subscale Noemi on Friday signifies that the design phase has ended.
“We have done the design freeze now and are only doing small adjustments.”
Adding that Noemi will be a platform for the future of aviation, he noted, “We have a fuselage and wing which outperforms the Twin Otter floatplane) by some margin.
“Noemi is designed to be propulsion agnostic. We are still making a battery electric seaplane, but the Noemi platform also supports hybrid, PT6 conventional engines and fuel and potentially also Hydrogen if someone can present a valid business case with that type of unforgiving fuel.”
Describing the Noemi as a “go anywhere plane”, Lithun underlined, “The Noemi platform is designed for the next 100 years of aviation and to go anywhere on the planet.”
