The Pipistrel Alpha Is Available Now…

Electric aircraft are about to make their debut in the flight training market. Rand Vollmer, the southeast dealer for Pipestrel USA, told ANN CEO and Editor in Chief Jim Campbell at AirVenture in July that the company has sold six of the electric trainers to a flight school in California.

Vollmer said there are limitations to electric propulsion, but there are also tremendous advantages to it. Lee Westropp, director of operations for Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum, one of the organizations that has purchased two of the Alpha aircraft, said that the turnaround time of a 45 minute charge is ideal for flight schools.

Vollmer said that the base price of the Pipistrel Alpha Electro is about $136,000, "but that includes your fuel for the first 500 cycles." The airplane is in production now, and a new factory has been opened in northern Italy. Deliveries are expected in about five to six months from order to delivery.

Pipistrel says that the Alpha Electro is optimized for traffic-pattern operations, where 13% of energy is recuperated on every approach, increasing endurance and at the same time enabling short-field landings.

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FMI: www.aero-news.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, www.pipistrel.si/plane/alpha-electro/overview