Scotland's first electric-powered aircraft completes Orkney test flight

Scotland's first electric-powered aircraft has taken to the skies from a new test centre in Orkney. One of the twin engines in Ampaire's six-seater Cessna Skymaster has been replaced with an electric motor. The company believes it could pave the way to retrofitting inter-island and short-haul flights with greener technologies. It is the first low-carbon aircraft to fly at the GBP3.7m sustainable aviation facility based at Kirkwall airport. The plane was built in 1974 but has been retrofitted at the company's headquarters in California. After initial test flights in Hawaii, it was shipped to Scotland for its first flight across open water between Orkney and Wick. About 90 minutes of rapid charging would provide around an hour of flight. Susan Ying from Ampaire said: "It will fly cleaner, be more efficient and more economical. It will start as a short-haul but eventually, as the technology's improving, it could go into medium to long-haul."<br/>