Swiss Start-up Jekta Aviation Unveils 19-Seater Electric Seaplane

Swiss start-up Jek­ta Avi­a­tion unveiled plans for an elec­tric 19-seater sea­plane at the recent Abu Dhabi Air Expo, reports the company’s web­site. Jek­ta claims “it could trans­form flight con­nec­tions between ocean­side com­mu­ni­ties and those with access to suit­able rivers and lakes.” Named the PHA-ZE 100, the amphib­ian craft will offer a range of around 94 miles, car­ry up to 19 pas­sen­gers, at speeds of close to 155 mph.

Describ­ing the air­craft as “a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of green avi­a­tion,” Jek­ta states the PHA-ZE 100 is a pas­sen­ger hydro-amphib­ian with zero emis­sions and asserts “that means the low­est cost per pas­sen­ger pos­si­ble and the pos­si­bil­i­ty to be used with low or no ground ameni­ties at all.”

The com­pa­ny con­tin­ues, “The use of a new elec­tric sea­plane will cre­ate a seg­ment of sus­tain­able trans­port mobil­i­ty for the pop­u­la­tion liv­ing in megac­i­ties and small set­tle­ments locat­ed on the coast of the seas and oceans, con­nect islands, and pre­serve the unique nature of wildlife sanc­tu­ar­ies that have become pop­u­lar as tourists’ attrac­tions.”

The Jek­ta Team at Abu Dhabi Air Expo

George Alafi­nov, CEO of Jek­ta Switzer­land, com­ment­ed, “Investors, pro­duc­tion part­ners and oper­a­tors see the PHA-ZE 100 as the one to revive the econ­o­my of coastal and island states, while reduc­ing green­house gas emis­sions.”

He con­tin­ued, “Jek­ta brings togeth­er spe­cial­ists from var­i­ous coun­tries with many years of expe­ri­ence in the design, pro­duc­tion and oper­a­tion of amphibi­ous sea­planes. Unlike its pre­de­ces­sors, the PHA-ZE 100 is made of mod­ern com­pos­ite mate­ri­als, equipped with mod­ern nav­i­ga­tion and pilot­ing sys­tems and an elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem, and pro­vides com­muter pas­sen­gers with com­fort­able flight con­di­tions.” Adding, “Nor­way has shown great inter­est in this air­craft and held talks with Jek­ta at the Abu Dhabi Air Expo for the pur­chase of sev­er­al PHA-ZE 100s.”

The name PHA-ZE stands for Pas­sen­ger Hybrid Air­craft Zero Emis­sions even though the ini­tial ver­sion is expect­ed to have a ful­ly bat­tery-elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem. Pub­lished draw­ings show 10 pro­pellers, each with its own 180-kilo­watt elec­tric motor, mount­ed on a 98 ft wing. Jek­ta has also indi­cat­ed it may con­sid­er an alter­na­tive hydro­gen-pow­ered ver­sion using fuel cells.

With a pro­ject­ed max­i­mum take­off weight not exceed­ing 19,000 pounds, Jek­ta aims to cer­ti­fy the PHA-ZE 100 under exist­ing EASA CS-23 reg­u­la­tions. It is propos­ing oth­er vari­ants of the air­craft includ­ing a car­go car­ri­er and a high end ver­sion, offer­ing a much more spa­cious cab­in, for small num­bers of exec­u­tive trav­ellers.

The com­pa­ny esti­mates that with cur­rent tech­nol­o­gy it would take no more than 45 min­utes to ful­ly recharge the bat­ter­ies, while also design­ing a process for chang­ing bat­ter­ies between flights.

Jek­ta is cur­rent­ly seek­ing new investors to sup­port its busi­ness. The com­pa­ny is based at the Swiss Aero­pole busi­ness park at Pay­erne Air­port and has over 20 years expe­ri­ence of man­u­fac­tur­ing amphib­ian air­craft.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://jekta.swiss/

(images: Jek­ta)