Forget flying taxis and electric cars. Norway is instead betting on flying boats.
The seaplane - currently being tested in the towing tank at SINTEF, a Norweigan independent research organisation - is expected to be able to take off from Norway's Trondheim Fjord or Flesland Airport in Bergen and land in the Geiranger Fjord one hour later.
The plane has been designed by Norwegian startup Elfly, whose vision is to make electric flight available for passenger traffic as soon as possible. The project is a collaboration between Elfly, SINTEF, NTNU, Norwegian, OSM Aviation and Norsk Titan. It has also received financial support from the Research Council of Norway, with a view to getting a full-scale prototype in the air within the next three years.
“This will be a kind of battery-powered flying boat,” said Eric Lithun, CEO of Elfly. “The goal is to be able to provide flexible mobility in Norway, with zero emissions and significantly reduced noise pollution...