In July, 2011 Dale Kramer took off from a field behind his house, and made the first ever landing on water with an electric-powered amphibia after a 7 minutes long maiden flight.

On the picture you can see Kramer’s plane displayed in Oshkos, during this year’s AirVenture. Back in 1977, Kramer as an aircraft engineering student got his inspiration here to design the twin-engined Lazair, a majestically slow ultralight aircraft ( it’s average speed is only about 70 km/h).

The plane was sold in kits, more than 2000 were built, a two-seater version also exist.

Kramer decided to “electrify” his plane. He moved to Hammondsport, and bought the estate of Glenn Curtiss, the father of naval aviation.

He had to be in hurry, because an English team already developed a successful electric driving for the land version, which was also installed to an ultralight trike.

But the water was left for Kramer, at first he built a simple seaplane (practically just a winged kayak with two engines), then then he solved the installation of retractable landing gears, that’s how the Electric Lazair Amphibia was made.

Past the historic flight, after one hour of recharging, he took off again, this time from water.

Kramer thinks that the flight time of his amphibia will be increased to more hours soon.

It’s a pity that the plane wasn’t awarded the Lindbergh award in Oshkosh this year, shared with the actual winner Electra One, in my opinion Dale Kramer’s achievements in the last 30 years would have deserved it.

Finally, you can watch a time-lapse video of the plane’s flight in Oshkosh.

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The first electric-powered amphibia in the world

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