Ampaire is busy developing its Eco Caravan, a hybrid-electric conversion of the Cessna 208, as Dr Susan Ying, SVP Global Operations, explained to Ian Harbison in the October 2023 issue of Airliner World
California-based Ampaire was founded in 2016 by Kevin Noertker (CEO), Cory Combs (CTO), and Ryan Bilton (CFO) initially to pursue fundamental research and development on electric aircraft. However, the slow pace of battery technology progress saw the company switch its focus to hybrid-electric, resulting in the AMP-Drive hybrid-electric powertrain and lightweight battery pack.
The project reached its first major milestone on June 6, 2019, with the first flight of the Electric EEL, Cessna 337 Skymaster N72342 (c/n 33701567). The aircraft had its rear Continental IO-360 engine replaced by the prototype electric powertrain and controller, a configuration that allowed the batteries to be installed in the aft cabin with relative ease. Although not representative of the later installation on the bigger C208 Caravan, the early flight trials were focused on proving the propulsion system and understanding of the energy utilisation and optimisation, rather than gathering flight test data on the aircraft.
On September 10, 2020, the secon…
