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Following years of intensive development and choruses of naysaying, Alice, the all-electric, nine-passenger commuter aircraft designed and built by Eviation, has made its inaugural flight. The nine minute undertaking saw the unconventional machine liftoff at approximately 07:10 PDT from Grant County International Airport (MWH) in Moses Lake, Washington. Test pilot Steve Crane urged Alice to an altitude of 3,500-feet and made several passes over the airport vicinity before bringing the sleek, low-wing aircraft to safe landing. Prince Albert II, of Monaco, has announced first details of the World Sky Race—a race around the world by airships (blimps, dirigibles, and zeppelins). Winner's prize: $5 million. Explorers Club member Prince Albert, Google co-founder Serge Brin, and Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson are all among the world figures who now see airships as a way to reduce global warming. Yamaha has waded into the aero engine market with its CP2, a 700-cubic-centimeter two-cylinder, vertically configured, liquid-cooled mill with a power-output of about seventy-horsepower. Yamaha-ShinMaywa conducted an early-stage flight-test of a prototype, Yamaha-powered small aircraft. Dubbed the XU-L. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!