Compared to the whine and roar of the planes that came before, when the plane I had come to see appeared, the first thing I noticed was the lack of noise. As the plane circled back, and glided overhead on its second pass, the plane’s electric motor gave off a soft hum.

The several hundred aviation enthusiasts who lined the taxiway with me at San Carlos Airport, heads craned towards the sky, had likely come to see that morning’s finale: an acrobatics display featuring the Sukhoi West Demo Team.

I had come to see the B23 Energic. The plane’s diminutive size – it measures just under 22 feet from nose to tail and a little more than 30 feet wide at the wings – belies its outsized role in the future of aviation.

Airports are already busy reducing emissions from operations on the ground and at the gate. Emissions from planes in flight account for a much larger share of the sector’s overall carbon footprint and will be commensurately difficult to clean up.

Travelers alive today may never fly across and between continents on fully electric planes. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a role for battery electric planes today.

In fact, the B23 Energic will be used to train the next generation of European pilots beginning next year.

H55 is targeting the B23 Energic at flight schools, aero clubs, military academies, and private pilots. The 100-kilowatt electric motor and 49 kilowatt-hour battery pack allows for around 70 minutes of flight time. One hour of charging yields one hour of flight time.

For flight schools, the big selling points are the low operating costs and quiet operation.

The electricity cost for 1-hour of flight is just $7 (at 20 cents/kWh), according to Bristell.