Impossible Aerospace Claims Electric Aviation First

<p><strong>Impossible Aerospace&nbsp;announced that its US-1 &quot;flying battery&quot; quadcopter became the first aircraft of its kind to cross the northern&nbsp;Nevada&nbsp;desert without recharging in repeated 72-minute flights across the playa on&nbsp;August 6, 2019.</strong></p> <p><strong>This flight marked yet another public demonstration for the US-1, first unveiled at Interdrone 2018. The aircraft used for the flight was an unmodified production US-1, carrying with it both a FLIR Duo Pro R camera and HD video transmitter. With and against the prevailing winds, the US-1 flew distances of 29 and 21 miles respectively.</strong></p> <p><strong>&quot;The US-1 is the first major breakthrough in drone performance since the introduction of the quadcopter,&quot; said&nbsp;Spencer Gore, CEO. &quot;More importantly, is the first battery-electric aircraft to rival the performance of a conventionally powered system.&quot;</strong></p> <p><strong>While many electric aircraft have flown similar distances, the US-1 differs in that it uses propellers instead of wings to fight gravity, which requires more energy per mile but allows the aircraft to hover in place.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><strong><img alt="" src="http://images.vfl.ru/ii/1566459577/f78c11e4/27618118.jpg" style="height:576px; width:600px" /></strong></p> <p>The US-1 has seen strong commercial traction with government and enterprise customers. On&nbsp;August 5th, the city of&nbsp;San Pablo, California announced&nbsp;it would be purchasing three US-1 aircraft for use by its police department, and on&nbsp;August 13, gas detection company SeekOps&nbsp;announced it would integrate with US-1.&nbsp;</p> <p>According to the company, the flight was planned to avoid operations over people and protected wilderness areas. The flight was conducted under 14 CFR 107.25, with the pilot operating as a passenger of a moving vehicle over a sparsely populated area maintaining visual line of sight to the aircraft.</p> <p>&quot;The ultimate vision of Impossible Aerospace is to build long-range electric aircraft that carry goods and people around the world, emissions free,&quot; said Gore. &quot;But electrification changes literally everything about an aircraft, and many of these changes will take years to prove safe enough for passenger transport. In the meantime, we believe it&#39;s prudent to push the envelope of electric aircraft using&nbsp;<em>unmanned</em>&nbsp;aircraft, and to advance drone regulations by piloting use cases that save lives.&quot;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>