"A Beaver on Steroids"

Harbour Air has taken to the skies with its first electric-powered de Havilland Beaver.



It wasn't a long flight, about five minutes in all. Long enough to prove that it flies just fine or, as the company CEO and founder, Greg McDougal, who was at the controls put it, "like a Beaver on steroids."

“A revolution starts, as they say, with the first shot,” magniX CEO Roei Ganzarski told National Observer. “And this flight is that shot.” This past March, McDougal partnered with Seattle-based startup magniX, which developed the 750-horsepower Magni500 electric aircraft motor that powered this morning’s flight. 

Ganzarski explained that a variety of factors make Harbour Air, and in particular the routes served by its fleet of DHC-2 de Havilland Beavers, ideal for electrification.

“The Beaver is the perfect plane for this, because it's a workhorse,” said Ganzarski. “It’s a tank. It’s incredibly reliable, easy and simple to operate and modify. If you’re going to try something revolutionary, let's try something that you think has the highest likelihood of success out the door.”

It's believed the electric Beaver will be perfect for the Vancouver to Victoria, harbour to harbour, run.