There has never been an aircraft quite like Cosmic One.
The model—a “premium four-seater [full] electric aircraft” according to Christopher Chahine, co-founder and CEO of Colorado-based manufacturer Cosmic Aerospace—is still in the preliminary design stage. But it is a candidate to be the first clean-sheet, four-seat, all-electric aircraft certified under the FAA’s refreshed Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certifications (MOSAIC) rule.
MOSAIC took full effect in July, shifting the paradigm of legacy weight-based rules to performance-based certification standards for light sport aircraft (LSA). The new framework allows heavier, faster aircraft to qualify and raises maximum seating capacity from two to four. It also permits nontraditional powerplants including electric engines.
Manufacturers have taken various approaches to introducing MOSAIC-compliant aircraft, but Cosmic One combines many of them. It takes advantage of the rule’s allowance of up to four seats like the Van’s RV-10, which previously exceeded LSA limitations due to its stall speed. It is fully electric, similar to the RV-10 that MagniX is retrofitting with its magniAIR electric engine. But it is a true clean-sheet design like Bye Aerospace’s eFlyer 2, a two-seater.
Those MOSAIC-compliant aircraft are further along in the development process than Cosmic One. But the clean-sheet, all-electric four-seater embodies the new limits of what LSA can be.
“If you start with an existing airframe, you’re trying to squeeze your [electric] technology into an existing, very constrained package,” Chahine told FLYING. “So that naturally creates design decisions and tradeoffs.”
Developing a MOSAIC-compliant aircraft from scratch also comes with tradeoffs, of course. Chahine said Cosmic is targeting the first flight of a full-scale Cosmic One prototype in the next 18 to 24 months, meaning it will likely hit the market after other revamped LSA models. But the manufacturer is playing the long game.
Building the Embedded Wing
Cosmic Aerospace got the ball rolling in 2022 following its first venture-backed funding round and according to Chahine spent its first few years developing a “new electric aircraft architecture.”
He described the configuration as an “embedded wing” that he said “allows us to more tightly integrate the propulsion system and the airframe design to unlock more performance”—specifically in efficiency and range. The company is targeting flight endurance of two-plus hours and range of 250 nm with VFR reserves at launch.
Chahine added that the wing is “scalable intrinsically,” compatible with both Cosmic One and a larger, future regional aircraft the manufacturer is developing.
Ultimately, Cosmic aims to electrify both general and commercial aviation, but the cost and complexity of commercial certification was a challenge early on. However, Chahine said MOSAIC “catalyzed” the development of Cosmic One. The rule prompted the company to examine new designs that might now be permitted and how they could address pain points for the GA market.
Chahine described the rule as an “incredible opportunity for aircraft manufacturers like us to bring our technology to market much, much faster, and through a much more secure certification approach.”
He said Cosmic’s embedded wing architecture could be described as a distributed electric propulsion system, though the system is not flap-mounted. The multi-engine configuration comprises six ducted fans integrated in the airframe and powered by high-performance electric motors. The manufacturer is targeting a 250-knot top speed, which would not have been permitted under previous LSA restrictions.
The company has flown the embedded wing system on two subscale demonstrators to validate its stability, control, and performance. It has also built subscale and full-scale engines that Chahine said have been tested “extensively” on the ground and on a test bench.
Chahine said Cosmic One will offer a “premium flight experience and a premium interior experience as well.”
The manufacturer has also conceived a 24-seat, all-electric regional model it calls Skylark. It has completed Skylark’s conceptual design phase and initial testing of the model’s full-scale engine system, which Chahine said is slightly larger than Cosmic One’s.
That program is “on hold” as Cosmic is “fully focused” on commercializing a MOSAIC-compliant model. Chahine said there are some differences between the two aircraft in terms of the integration of engines and systems into the structures. But the “overall conceptual system is effectively going to be the same,” he said.
“That’s really why Cosmic One and MOSAIC is so important to us,” Chahine said, “because we’re aiming to get this key technology out there and demonstrate that we can build high-performance electric aircraft under a very streamlined certification approach, serve a considerably sized market, and then scale the technology up from there.”
Cosmic has opened reservations for the first 100 “Founder Series” Cosmic One aircraft, allowing private owners and operators to place initial deposits.
Going Clean Sheet
Both Cosmic One and Skylark are clean-sheet aircraft, a design decision Chahine said was “fairly intuitive.” The manufacturer sought to optimize Cosmic One for the embedded wing propulsion system, which he said would not have been possible using a piston-powered model as the baseline.
“If you have batteries and electric motors, you really want to start from a clean sheet in order to fully leverage the benefits that you’re getting and to compensate for some of the challenges that you’re having with this new technology,” he said.
For example, Chahine said that with a retrofit, Cosmic One would “almost certainly” need to use a single-propeller configuration rather than the manufacturer’s multi-engine architecture. He also said flight range can be limited when retrofitting electric batteries on a piston airplane.
“Instead of following a retrofit approach, we’ve looked into how can we try to design an aircraft with today’s technologies that get around those issues and build a product that can fly longer ranges, that really addresses the mainstream aviation market rather than just the GA market,” Chahine said.
Another advantage is that Cosmic One does not position the motor or engine compartment in front of the passenger fuselage. That provides “dramatically better” visibility for pilots than what they would get using a conventional framework, as well as improved safety and enjoyment for passengers, he said.
Training For the Future
Cosmic has ambitions beyond producing MOSAIC aircraft. But the new rule’s relaxed parameters mean that noncommercial pilots may have opportunities to explore novel technology before their commercial counterparts.
Out of the gate, Chahine believes Cosmic One will be positioned to replace certain training aircraft. He said based on conversations with “some of the largest collegiate flight schools in the country” that the model’s targeted 250 nm range at delivery is enough to cover a “large part of the training curriculum for private and commercial pilots.”
Cosmic One is designed to charge in about 30 minutes, which Chahine said could help flight schools reduce downtime. He added that it will be more affordable than existing multi-engine trainers, with a price point comparable to single-engine models produced by Cirrus Aircraft—plus the added benefit of lower operating costs.
Cosmic has announced Colorado’s Centennial Flyers and Germany’s Evia Aero as its respective American and European launch partners for Cosmic One. Chahine said the company is also in discussions with leading flight training organizations around the U.S. regarding potential future partnerships.
Chris Palmer, Cosmic’s head of corporate strategy, said launch customers will include flight academies, flight clubs, and potentially university partners.
Before MOSAIC, manufacturers would need to contend with rigorous certification requirements to offer an all-electric four-seater they designed from scratch, outside of the experimental category. Now, there is a world of possibility.
