By Joelle Maxfield
The first time I saw Colin Hutchison and Vaughan Wellington, it was from behind a table in the busy International Visitors Tent at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019. I couldn’t have known that within a month I’d be traveling to Australia to help them build the first Australian-designed electric airplane in Mittagong, New South Wales, among the hills of the Southern Highlands.
I’ve volunteered in the International Visitors Tent with my mother since I was a little girl. Born and raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, EAA is in my blood now and I look forward to it every year. I can’t remember a time that I haven’t gone to EAA with her and listened to the languages of the world while we, ourselves, spoke Dutch to the few visitors from the Netherlands. I’ve enjoyed meeting new people each year and have kept close friendships with people from all over the world. So last year, when the usual couple from Sydney weren’t able to make it to EAA to work in the tent, I helped at the table for Australian visitors. It was in the group of 386 Australians who checked into our tent, that two kept me talking.
Colin Hutchison, an aerospace engineer, had a booth nearby where he was displaying the model of an electric airplane he had designed and was building, the Electron E-75. The Electron E-75 is an all-electric, two-seater kit aircraft borne of Colin’s idea to build the world’s fastest electric aircraft. That idea morphed when Colin met his business partner, Vaughan Wellington, who suggested it become a two-seater for more practical purposes. Vaughan is an interesting man in his own right, fully committed to doing what he can to help the planet, even trolling the ocean for plastics with his Viking ship. He is a true eco-warrior.
I accepted Colin’s offer to come and assist them in their project. Making the move in late August to Australia was stressful, but exhilarating. My time here has flown by with a speed I didn’t know existed. As someone who (admittedly) didn’t know too much about kit aircraft, my mind has been opened. I’ve helped make fibreglass moulds for carbon fibre layups, prepped for resin infusions, and written major parts of the POH and plane kit instructions.
Colin has been busy making fibreglass moulds for carbon fibre parts with Ray Tolhurst, owner of Wedgetail Aircraft at Camden Airport. Ray was one of the pioneers of the ultralight revolution in Australia, building the famous Grasshopper and later designing and building the Stingray, the first cantilever all-fibreglass winged ultralight aircraft in the world. I’m intrigued by the work Ray does; the process of making moulds is slow and steady, but the parts that have come out so far are clean and perfect. We’re getting closer to having all the parts ready to begin assembling. We hope to be flight testing within the coming months.
The Electron E-75 was designed to be high performance. Colin wanted it to have as long of flights as possible and be exciting to fly. He’s hoping to bring high performance to general aviation without carbon emissions and pollution — and reduce costs of usage. With the Electron, we’re hoping that more aviators will make a change to electric and help the environment while also reducing their own flying costs. Flights in an equivalent aircraft are probably 60-80 dollars an hour to operate and maintain. Ours will be 6-8 dollars an hour in electricity — and an additional 10 dollars an hour if you factor in battery replacement costs — with little to no maintenance on the engine.
An added benefit of electric aircraft is when changing batteries — pilots will see an increase in performance and endurance because battery technology will only get cheaper and more energy dense as time goes on. New technology will see our aircraft increasing in benefits as time goes on — performance, range endurance, and battery capacity.
The last change that electric aviation has to make is the regular installation of electric chargers at airports. We’ve all seen communal electric chargers and public car-charging stations and they’ve become more readily available as the years go on. We know that there will need to be another great push for electric charging stations to be available for aircraft. While electric aircraft may not be commonplace yet, we consider what we do the next big step in emission-conscious travel. We believe that electric aircraft are also the future of flight training; with fuel costs at a minimum, it will become less expensive to learn to fly. We want to give the next wave of aviators the chance to pick electric and know, just like electric car drivers who plan their trip with charging stations in mind, they too can fly with confidence in their next fuel stop.
The opened door to the possibilities of electric aircraft is exciting, and I’m happy to be in the middle of it. I’m proud to be a newly minted woman in aviation. It’s sometimes hard being so far away from Oshkosh, but the world of aviation in Australia is just as avid as back home. Vaughan, Colin, and I will be back again to Oshkosh for AirVenture with our work, and it’ll be interesting to see EAA from an exhibitor’s point of view. I can’t wait to come back home and introduce you all to the Electron E-75.
