London, July 10 (IANS): An Airbus electric plane completed a flight across the English Channel on Friday even as there were reports that another person claimed to have accomplished the same feat before it from the opposite direction.
Piloted by Didier Esteyne, Airbus's all-electric E-Fan plane took off from Lydd airport in Kent, England, and successfully landed in Calais 45 minutes later, completing a 33.1-km journey, The Telegraph reported.
It used batteries instead of conventional fuel to power its twin motors on the flight.
However, a French stunt pilot was reported to have beaten aeronautics giant Airbus to become the first person to cross the English Channel in an electric-powered plane.
On Thursday night, Hugues Duval, reportedly flew from Calais, France, to England and back in a tiny two-engine, one-seater Cri Cri plane, hours before Airbus's completed flight of the E-Fan 2.0 prototype in the opposite direction.
Airbus cried foul, claiming Duval's effort was not the first official electric-powered flight because his plane was launched from another aircraft.
"We applaud the intrepid aviator Hugues Duval for his flight in his Cri Cri," an Airbus spokesperson said.
"He plays in his own category. All efforts in electric flying support our goal to advance electric and hybrid flight. But, of course, in the first place we are extremely proud of our test pilot Didier Esteyne who just successfully crossed the Channel in our E-Fan."
More than 100 years since French aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly across the Channel in a plane, Didier Esteyne made history of a different kind -- in battery-powered aircraft.
"Like so many others in aviation history, Louis Bleriot has been a hero and inspiration to me and it gives me great pride that I am able to honour his legacy with the first ever electric-powered Channel crossing," Esteyne said earlier.
The two-seat E-Fan has a 31-foot wing span, is two metres in height, with a total engine power of 60 KW and it operates on a 120-cell lithium polymer battery system.
With no fuel burden, the plane, which made its maiden flight in March last year, can be landed, its batteries unplugged, and fly again after having a spare set fitted.
The E-Fan 1.0 has undergone 100 flights, and this project has taken 18 months from paper to its first flight, said Simon Bradley, head of global innovation network at Airbus Group.
Another attempt to cross the Channel in an electric plane by Slovenian company Pipistrel, in its Alpha Electro propeller plane, was called off earlier this week after motor engine supplier Siemens prohibited the use of its technology in a flight above water.