FIA 2026: Evolito Submits Type Certificate Application for E800 Electric Engine on Electra’s EL9 Aircraft

Evoli­to has announced the sub­mis­sion of its Type Cer­tifi­cate appli­ca­tion for its E800 elec­tric engine, ini­tial­ly intend­ed for inte­gra­tion on Electra’s EL9 Ultra Short hybrid-elec­tric air­craft.

Announced on day one of this year’s Farn­bor­ough Air Show, the appli­ca­tion rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the com­pa­ny’s jour­ney from tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment to cer­ti­fied aero­space prod­ucts and demon­strates the matu­ri­ty of both the E800 pro­gramme and Evoli­to’s broad­er indus­tri­al and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion capa­bil­i­ties.

The Type Cer­tifi­cate appli­ca­tion is for the E800 Series Elec­tric Engine, with the first cer­ti­fied con­fig­u­ra­tion des­ig­nat­ed the E800-A1 for the EL9 air­craft. This is the first type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion appli­ca­tion in a fam­i­ly of prod­ucts based around Evolito’s pro­pri­etary axi­al flux motor tech­nol­o­gy.

The sub­mis­sion for­mal­ly ini­ti­ates the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gramme with the UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty and marks the tran­si­tion from exper­i­men­tal engine devel­op­ment to the for­mal reg­u­la­to­ry process required for com­mer­cial deploy­ment.

The E800 pro­gramme is being devel­oped in accor­dance with the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion frame­work estab­lished for elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems, build­ing on Evolito’s Design Organ­i­sa­tion Approval and exten­sive invest­ment in engi­neer­ing, com­pli­ance and indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion capa­bil­i­ties. Evolito’s cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gramme pro­pos­es a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion basis under SC-E19, the spe­cial con­di­tion gov­ern­ing elec­tric and hybrid propul­sion sys­tems.

Dr Chris Har­ris, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Evoli­to, said: “This is a defin­ing moment for Evoli­to. Sub­mit­ting our Type Cer­tifi­cate appli­ca­tion is far more than a reg­u­la­to­ry mile­stone. It is evi­dence of the matu­ri­ty of our prod­ucts, our process­es and our organ­i­sa­tion.

“Over the last sev­er­al years we have built the engi­neer­ing foun­da­tions, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion capa­bil­i­ty and indus­tri­al infra­struc­ture required to bring cer­ti­fied elec­tric propul­sion to mar­ket. This week’s sub­mis­sion is the next step in the jour­ney to mak­ing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of the aero­space mar­ket a real­i­ty.”

Indus­try Min­is­ter Chris McDon­ald added: “This mile­stone from Evoli­to shows how the UK is turn­ing world-class inno­va­tion into the tech­nolo­gies that will pow­er the next gen­er­a­tion of flight. It’s exact­ly the kind of ambi­tion that will strength­en our indus­tri­al base and keep Britain at the cut­ting edge of advanced aero­space.”

“Through our Mod­ern Indus­tri­al Strat­e­gy, we are back­ing the aero­space sec­tor to grow, invest and cre­ate high-skilled jobs across the UK, help­ing ensure Britain remains at the fore­front of the next gen­er­a­tion of aero­space tech­nolo­gies.”

The E800 is a ful­ly inte­grat­ed elec­tric engine designed specif­i­cal­ly for aero­space propul­sion appli­ca­tions and opti­mised for pro­peller-dri­ven air­craft. The engine com­bines Evoli­to’s pro­pri­etary axi­al-flux motor tech­nol­o­gy with inte­grat­ed con­trols, cool­ing and pro­peller-load-bear­ing archi­tec­ture in a com­pact pack­age, engi­neered for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and vol­ume pro­duc­tion.

Evoli­to’s E800 plat­form is designed for civ­il cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and incor­po­rates DAL‑A con­trol sys­tem archi­tec­ture, reflect­ing the strin­gent safe­ty approach tak­en by the com­pa­ny in its engine design.

The pro­gram­me’s first appli­ca­tion is Elec­tra’s EL9 Ultra Short, a nine-pas­sen­ger hybrid-elec­tric air­craft that uses dis­trib­uted elec­tric propul­sion to deliv­er take-off and land­ing capa­bil­i­ties in as lit­tle as 150 feet.

The fixed-wing air­craft is designed to unlock new region­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty oppor­tu­ni­ties while sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduc­ing noise, emis­sions and infra­struc­ture require­ments com­pared with con­ven­tion­al air­craft. Elec­tra recent­ly received their G‑1 Issue Paper from the FAA on its path towards EL9 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion under FAA Part 23, while the E800 engine will fol­low an SC-E19 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion path­way with con­cur­rent FAA val­i­da­tion.

The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sub­mis­sion fol­lows exten­sive devel­op­ment work across the E800 plat­form, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of a dig­i­tal twin for advanced mul­ti-modal sim­u­la­tion, safe­ty assess­ments, soft­ware plan­ning, hard­ware devel­op­ment, sys­tem archi­tec­ture def­i­n­i­tion and com­pli­ance plan­ning as well as ear­ly “vir­tu­al builds” to ensure man­u­fac­tur­ing fea­si­bil­i­ty is main­tained.

These activ­i­ties have estab­lished the foun­da­tion required to demon­strate com­pli­ance with the rig­or­ous safe­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty and per­for­mance require­ments expect­ed of com­mer­cial aero­space propul­sion sys­tems.

Impor­tant­ly, the mile­stone demon­strates grow­ing momen­tum across the elec­tric avi­a­tion sec­tor. While much of the indus­try’s ear­ly focus cen­tred on prov­ing elec­tric propul­sion tech­nol­o­gy, the empha­sis is increas­ing­ly shift­ing towards cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, pro­duc­tion readi­ness and entry into ser­vice.

Dr Richard Shep­herd, Head of Air­wor­thi­ness and for­mer Rolls-Royce Air­wor­thi­ness lead, said: “Evoli­to’s sub­mis­sion reflects this tran­si­tion and high­lights the progress being made toward bring­ing cer­ti­fied elec­tric propul­sion solu­tions into com­mer­cial operation.“Certification is where aero­space inno­va­tion becomes aero­space real­i­ty.

“This appli­ca­tion demon­strates that elec­tric propul­sion is mov­ing beyond con­cept stud­ies and flight demon­stra­tions. It is becom­ing a cer­ti­fi­able, scal­able and com­mer­cial­ly deploy­able tech­nol­o­gy. We are proud to be help­ing lead that tran­si­tion, not just with the air­framers but also with the cer­ti­fy­ing author­i­ties.”

The E800 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gramme is intend­ed to estab­lish a cer­ti­fied propul­sion plat­form that can sup­port mul­ti­ple future air­craft appli­ca­tions, cre­at­ing a foun­da­tion for broad­er adop­tion of elec­tric propul­sion across region­al, busi­ness and advanced avi­a­tion mar­kets. Evoli­to describes the E800 as the first mem­ber of an E800 Series elec­tric engine fam­i­ly, with future air­craft appli­ca­tions expect­ed to lever­age the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion frame­work estab­lished through the EL9 pro­gramme.

With the appli­ca­tion now sub­mit­ted, Evoli­to will con­tin­ue work­ing close­ly with reg­u­la­tors, Elec­tra and its sup­ply chain part­ners as the pro­gramme pro­gress­es through the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process.