F-150 Lightning’s Pro Power Onboard Enables All-Electric Flight, Stadium Flyover

Written By By Paul Kampe
Nov 22, 2022

Customers constantly use F-150 Lightning’s Pro Power Onboard in new ways, but a recent adaptation helped unlock yet another new opportunity – enabling all-electric air travel. Four F-150 Lightning owners recently helped an engineering student at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania recharge a small, two-seat electric plane as he traveled from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, where the aircraft served in what is believed to be the first electric plane flyover at a football game before a rematch in one of college football’s oldest rivalries.

Koch 33 Ford, of Easton, Pennsylvania, supplied the F-150 Lightning which was used to charge the plane before Saturday’s flyover. The truck also powered a portion of the Lafayette Gets Electric Gameday Tailgate Party near the stadium, where it was on display with the Pipistrel Alpha Electro plane, as well as an electric Formula 1 race car.

Remy Oktay, a junior at Lafayette who initiated the events, also flew the airplane. Due to federal regulations and charging infrastructure limitations at airports, the plane, which has a 75-mile range, needed to land five times at small, private airstrips to recharge along the way from Hartford, Connecticut, to Easton, Pennsylvania, taking an estimated hour and a half to recharge the plane’s battery at each stop. This is believed to be the first time an electric plane has been charged using an electric vehicle.

Oktay made the 168-mile journey with the help of a 28-member team that included four F-150 Lightning owners, whom Oktay met online through F-150 Lightning owner forums; other support vehicles, two support aircraft, a helicopter and another plane used for aerial photography.

“It's an amazing group of people, mainly of Lafayette students and alumni, parents and family members,” he said. “It's been incredible. I mean, everyone has been so supportive of this.”

Oktay, who earned his pilot’s license two years ago, was inspired to carry out this project by his love of aviation, environmental conservation and engineering. He learned about electric airplanes this summer and worked several hours per day for nearly three months to bring the event to fruition.

Ford was also involved in helping Oktay. Keith Oglesby, manager of electrified powertrain systems and a 1992 Lafayette graduate whose team did early research for the F-150 Lightning and built the first two prototypes, was eager to help Oktay in his quest.

“It was like a no-brainer to try to help this kid,” Oglesby said. “He was looking for a way to keep it all electric. The original plan was to use a gas generator, but when he saw the capability of the F-150 Lightning, he wondered if he could use Pro Power Onboard so the journey could be 100% all-electric.”

Oktay utilized heavy-duty wiring and made custom connections to make the plane’s charging system compatible with the 240-volt power outlet that comes with Pro Power Onboard, Oglesby said. “The Lighting has no problem fully charging the plane,” he said.

In addition to support from Ford and private F-150 Lightning owners, Oglesby said Oktay also received assistance from the plane maker, as well as the maker of the electrical connections he used. “He really reached out to a lot of people to make this possible,” Oglesby said. “We’re super-excited that we were able to get a vehicle there to make this possible.”

Oktay flew the plane over Lafayette College’s Fisher Stadium before Saturday’s game. Oglesby traveled to his alma mater for the rivalry game against Lehigh University.

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    F-150 Lightning’s Pro Power Onboard Enables All-Electric Flight, Stadium Flyover
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ADDITIONAL CONTENT

Q&A: Engineering Student Discusses How F-150 Lightning’s Pro Power Onboard Made Electric Plane Flyover Possible 

By Andrew Surma

When Lafayette College engineering student Remy Oktay needed “on-the-fly” charging solutions, he looked to the F-150 Lightning customer community for help – and he got it. Oktay piloted a battery electric plane over Lafayette College’s Fisher Stadium before the annual rivalry football game against Lehigh University Saturday.

The occasion marked the first time an electric plane has done the traditional pregame flyover of a sporting event and the first time an electric plane has been charged using an electric vehicle, Oktay says. But before the flyover could happen, Oktay and his team had to fly the plane from Hartford, Connecticut to Easton, Pennsylvania with several charging stops along the way. This is where a crew of happy-to-help F-150 Lightning customers came in to put their trucks’ Pro Power Onboard feature to the test – charging an electric plane.

@FordOnline spoke with Oktay about the project, the F-150 Lightning and how the Pro Power Onboard feature it made this moment possible.

Q: Can you share the details of the trip and flyover, and give us some details about the plane you were flying?

A: “The trip was 168 miles, recharging (the plane) at five stops with the F-150 Lightning pickup truck. And we started at 6:10 a.m. in Hartford, Connecticut, and then flew to Braden Air Park in eastern Pennsylvania. We had about a 28-person team, including the four F-150 Lightnings, among other support vehicles and aircraft. It's an amazing group of people, mainly Lafayette students and alumni, parents and family members. And then also a bunch of these Ford customer volunteers we just met online through the Lightning owners forums, which is how we connected with them.”

Q: What type of electric plane did you fly, and can you tell us about its battery capacity?

A: “The plane we were flying is a Pipistrel Alpha Electro. They've been integral to making this project work, from sending a second charger for the plane to making our custom firmware that allows us to charge the plane from the truck. We flew at 60-64 knots and it has a 21-kilowatt-hour battery that we were recharging. We only put about 10 kilowatt hours in at each recharging stop, so very little dent in the F-150 Lightning’s battery capacity.”

Q: How long did it take to recharge using Pro Power Onboard?

A: “We were charging at, or about, an hour and a half because we were charging it at 7.2 kilowatts from the 240-volt, 30-amp plug in the bed of the truck.”

Q: What inspired you to partake in this project?

A: “My love for aviation, environmental conservation and engineering inspired me to put this whole project together. I got my pilot's license two years ago during the pandemic, and since then, it's been an incredible journey. But I kept asking myself, how can I combine these interests? And this summer I learned about electric airplanes. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be so cool to show the world that these electric planes exist? And I thought to myself, can I fly an electric plane over the Lafayette-Lehigh University football game? Once I got the go ahead, I worked about seven hours per day for the past 11 weeks pulling this all together, bringing in faculty, staff, other students, alumni, volunteers, to bring this whole project to fruition.”

Q: What has the response been like from the F-150 Lightning customer community?

A: “It's been incredible. I mean, everyone has been so supportive of this. All the drivers woke up so early in the morning, spent the whole day with us, stayed overnight here and then drove back the following day, volunteering all their time. And people online who weren’t able to join are still interested. We've been keeping the online forums posted on this, and everyone has been excited to hear the updates as we prove the power of electric vehicles – in the air or ground – during this project.”

Q: What is something you learned about electric vehicles, specifically electric planes during this project that you think people should know?

A: “I think what was most interesting about this was just how it works. There are fewer moving parts; there's less maintenance. During the trip, we had a mechanical issue with the helicopter, and it had to stop halfway, but the electric plane and electric truck kept chugging. The technology really works. We understand that (electric plane technology) is limited right now. Ideally, we wouldn't have to make five stops from Connecticut to Pennsylvania. But the technology works, and it's going to improve.

Q: What do you think the future of battery-electric transportation looks like?

A: “So, in terms of planes, I think we're looking at a good 20 to 25 years away from fully electric commercial aviation for passenger aircraft. There are a lot of other applications for them, so the plane we're using here is specifically designed for flight training, where you're just doing laps around the runway to practice takeoffs and landings. Unlike electric vehicles or cars in general, aviation has a lot of different applications, from flight training to instrument flight training, from cargo to passenger aircraft to small and large aircraft. You don't have 500-person cars, but you have 500-person planes. So many different niches within aviation will start to include hybrid electric aircraft. But overall, I think we simply see continued improvements of the technology over time in both electric vehicles and planes.”