Aircraft
Helios Horizon Flies Solid-State Battery Demonstrator
Nonprofit group targets stratospheric electric flight this year
Helios Horizon founder and chief test pilot Miguel Iturmendi stands with his modified Pipistrel Taurus
Helios Horizon founder and chief test pilot Miguel Iturmendi stands with his modified Pipistrel Taurus after flying it on solid-state batteries at Zephyrhills Municipal Airport in Florida on June 5. © Jack Dowd/Helios Horizon

A Sarasota, Florida, nonprofit group has flown what it says is the first piloted electric airplane powered by solid-state batteries. Helios Horizon founder and chief test pilot Miguel Iturmendi completed a series of short test flights on June 5 at Zephyrhills Municipal Airport (KZPH) in central Florida, flying a modified Pipistrel Taurus motor glider that the team reconfigured to run its single motor on solid-state batteries.

“For the first time, we have a battery technology that yields the range and charging times necessary to make commercial electric aviation viable, while providing the safety the flying public will demand,” Iturmendi said in a company statement.