Rolls-Royce Holdings has publicly claimed it believes its Spirit of Innovation all-electric plane is the fastest electric vehicle in the world, following three new speed records. The flight data has been submitted to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) with the hopes the organization will soon certify and officially confirm these world records.

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Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines, is collaborating with ZeroAvia to develop a hydrogen-electric powertrain that will be implemented on a 76 passenger plane. When completed, the ZA2000 hydrogen-electric powertrain should boast 2,000-5,000 kW of power with a 500-mile range. As a new investor in ZeroAvia, Alaska Air plans to electrify its aviation to meet its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2040.

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The Spirit of Innovation, a Rolls-Royce all-electric airplane, is scheduled to take flight for the first time soon, and will be towed around the tarmac by a Jaguar I-Pace as a support vehicle. Rolls-Royce plans to attempt a world record flight with the Spirit of Innovation by reaching a target flight speed of over 300 mph.

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North America’s largest seaplane airline, Harbour Air, announced a partnership with magniX and H55 to produce what it is calling “the world’s first certified all-electric commercial airplane.” The new partnership will continue to develop and certify its electric Beaver (eBeaver) commuter plane through a supplemental type certificate (STC) program in Canada.

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An electric plane has crash-landed into a lake in Norway earlier this week in another blow to the current effort to electrify flight. expand full story

SunPower isn’t just powering roofs and solar farms these days. The company, which touts its solar panels as the most durable and efficient on the market, is looking at other applications. I’d be hard pressed to find one as awesome as the upcoming Mission SolarStratos expedition which will be powered by its 22-24% efficient Maxeon™ solar cells. expand full story

Norway has been leading the world for electric car adoption for years now. In December, EVs represented over 50% of new car sales – something that no other country can come close to at this point.

But now they have the ambition to also move to electric flight with a new goal to have all short-haul flights be all-electric by 2040. expand full story

Battery-powered air travel is not currently commercially viable simply because the energy storage capacity of batteries has yet to compensate for their heavy weight. A lot of companies are eyeing the possibility as energy density is improving and we have seen some progress with Airbus’’ E-Fan being the first electric plane to successfully fly across the English Channel.

Now a new startup is trying the more ambitious goal of building a battery-powered 150-seat plane to compete with 737-size aircrafts in the market for short-haul trips (under 300 miles). expand full story