New Electric Aircraft to be Flight-Tested in Moses Lake

Eviation’s Alice electric airplane makes its debut at the Paris Air Show. 

An Israeli startup called Eviation Aircraft unveiled its first prototype electric airplane at the International Paris Air Show in June, with flight testing planned at Moses Lake. Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay told reporters that his company hopes to win certification for the Alice airplane from the Federal Aviation Administration by late 2021 or early 2022.

Bar-Yohay stressed that Eviation’s Alice was designed from the ground up to be all-electric. “It’s not a retrofit of anything,” he said. “It is built the way a plane should be built in the 21st century.”

Because of its lightweight carbon-composite structure, Alice will be able to fly 650 miles on a charge, at a speed of 276 mph and altitude of 10,000 feet, Bar-Yohay said.

The bulk of the flight tests would be conducted at Moses Lake’s airport in partnership with Seattle-based AeroTEC. which is also currently providing flight testing for Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ). Moses Lake’s Grant County International Airport is a popular flight test site and airplane storage facility for companies including Boeing and Mitsubishi.

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New Craft Brewery Opens in Moses Lake

Our friends Ruben and Troy just opened a new craft brewery & taproom next to Chico's Pizza. They are both outstanding brewers and will be producing a variety of exceptional beers. Congrats to the fellas for making their dream a reality.

SFAB is located at 530 W. Valley Road, Moses Lake. Drop by soon for a cold freshie.  https://www.facebook.com/SquirrelFightArtisanBrewing/

Budbreak... sort of?

The buds are reluctant to stick their heads out, like they don't fully trust the warming trend we've had this week. Maybe they know something.

It was ten years ago today (April 19, 2009) that we had our "planting party" and the vineyard began. Since then we've had five vintages bottled and won a gold medal. The Cab Franc in particular has produced some outstanding wines.

Here are a few photos from the planting party:

Travis took a "crash" course and got his pilot's license. Occasionally he practices touch-&-goes in the hayfield.

Pruning 2019

Late! Snow stuck around this year until mid-March. Seems like the whole environment was just waiting. I went out the first morning and the buds were still tight. Went in for lunch and when I came back out they were already swelling.

Budbreak is usually mid-April anyway so we're not off schedule.

Sticks in the Air

...on Lot 25. Beautiful new 2,800sf single-story ridgefront home going up.

Interesting Tidbit in the Local Paper This Week

IS BOEING UP TO SOMETHING IN GRANT COUNTY?

November 14, 2018 at 5:00 am | By CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE Staff Writer

Jeffrey Bishop, executive director of the Port of Moses Lake, said Tuesday that Boeing officials are paying ‘a lot of attention’ to the company’s Moses Lake facility.

MOSES LAKE — Something is happening at the Boeing facility at the Grant County International Airport.

But if anyone knows what it is, they aren’t talking.

“There are lots of comings and goings at the Port of Moses Lake facility,” said Jeffrey Bishop, executive director of the Port of Moses Lake, during a regular meeting of the port commission on Tuesday.

Bishop said that recently, several senior Boeing officials, including a long-term planner, visited the hangar Boeing owns at the Port of Moses Lake and where, up until recently, the company has stored parts and machine tools, some allegedly related to its defense activities.

“A lot of attention is being paid to that facility,” Bishop said.

Bishop said that the Everett-based aerospace manufacturer has cleared out its Moses Lake hangar and is “looking at what to do with the facility.”

The Port of Moses Lake has been considering submitting a proposal to host the production facility for Boeing’s planned replacement for the 757, the New Midsize Airplane (NMA), an unnamed plane sometimes informally referred to as the 797.

In a Friday, Nov. 8 segment of “Inside Olympia,” a newsmaker interview show hosted by public broadcaster TVW, Larry Brown, the legislative director for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union Local 751, said he believes Moses Lake would be a good location for a large aircraft production facility.

“We think it makes some real sense to do that,” Brown told host Austin Jenkins.

In fact, Brown said when Boeing was looking for a second production center for the 787 Dreamliner, his union pushed hard to build that in Moses Lake.

Brown also believes it is very likely that sometime in the next decade, a major new aircraft production center will be built “in a place like Moses Lake.”

“There’s great potential for that,” he said.

Boeing is the fifth-largest taxpayer in Grant County, paying roughly $1.6 million in property taxes on an assessed value of $142.9 million in real estate and business property in 2017.