7 April 2017
The Extra 330LE powered only by a Siemens electric motor has set two new speed records, reaching a top speed of 343.86km/h – that’s 185.67kt.
The world governing body for air sports, the FAI, has ratified the two world records flown by company founder Walter Extra and Walter Kampsmann on 23 March 2017. Both pilots launched and flew the record from Schwarze Heide Airport near Dinslaken, Germany.
The Extra 330LE, which made its maiden flight in June last year, was flown at two different weights by two different pilots, to set two new world records. Both flights were watched by an official FAI Observer.
The records are:
1 Speed over a 3km course, in an aircraft with a take-off weight of 500kg to 1000kg: 337.5km/h. The pilot was Walter Extra.
2 Speed over a 3km course, in an aircraft with a take-off weight of 1000kg-1750kg: 342.86km/h. The pilot was Walter Kampsmann (GER), an aerobatics pilot.
Walter Extra took off first at 9.15am. He then flew at a height of between 400m-550m on a straight course along a pre-determined 3km track in the sky. For each record he made four passes along the course line, each time recording his flight data by GPS. The world record time of 337.5km/h is an average of the four runs. Each run through the 3km course took about 30 seconds.
Later on the same day, Walter Kampsmann took off at 3pm and completed the same flight plan. He also completed four runs through the 3km aerial race track, with an average speed of 342.86km/h.
They come just four months after Walter Extra set a world record in the same plane for gain of height: he climbed to 3,000m in a time of 4mins 22 seconds on battery power alone. That first flight was called a ‘technical milestone’ by Siemens, the company behind the technology that powers the electric aircraft.
