First commercial electric plane takes flight
This water plane take-off is historic.
It's the maiden flight of the world's first fully electric commerical airplane.
Harbour Air and MagniX, the companies behind the aircraft, say the test flight is a big step forward in aviation.
SOUNDBITE) (English)
((MagniX CEO Roei Ganzarski)
"This is a goal of a lifetime and an achievement of a lifetime, and now the real electric revolution starts."
Crowds lined the waterfront, cheering the plane on.
The aircraft is over half a century old, retrofitted with an electric motor.
And it didn't disappoint.
The takeoff wasn't without its challenges. But in the end- the pilot set a milestone.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) (GREG MCDOUGALL, CEO AND FOUNDER OF HARBOUR AIR SEAPLANES AND THE TEST PILOT)
"The aircraft performed amazingly well. I wasn't actually anticipating it getting off -- we had a significant tail wind this morning, so it should have lengthened the tail or the takeoff run considerably -- but the aircraft wanted to get off the water really quickly. I actually had to hold it down on the water to get it in position where, you know, everybody wanted it, which was basically abeam, the terminal and then I could let it fly. "
The new technology could help airlines shave off costs - and edge closer to zero emissions.
Harbour Air hopes it can ferry passengers with electric planes by 2022.
