Awards and Updates from Pipistrel

PIPISTREL WINS LINDBERGH PRIZE FOR THE BEST

Last issue, we ran an article on the Pipistrel Taurus G2 Electric glider. Since then, we have learnt that the aircraft has won the Lindbergh Prize for the best Electric Aircraft. The prize was awarded at the AERO trade fair in Germany.

The finalists were: • The Hugues Duval Electric Cri-Cri with power by Electravia. • The Pipistrel Taurus Electro • The Sunseeker II solar airplane by Eric Raymond. (SoaringNZ ran an article on the Sunseeker II in issue 13.)

“It was very difficult to determine a winner,” states the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) award website, “as all of the finalists have done a great job creating the new world of electric flight.”

The Pipistrel Taurus Electro was chosen because it has a professionally engineered ‘plug and play’ electric power system, which is available for commercial sale to other airplane makers, and because it includes a completely integrated solar trailer, that allows the airplane to operate independently of the commercial power grid. The integration and safety features are excellent, and can serve as a model for industry standards for electric aircraft.”

The solar trailer mentioned last issue was also unveiled at the event and was apparently a large factor in the jury choosing the Taurus Electro G2 as the winner. Fly for Free

Pipistrel presents the concept of flying for free. Pipistrel developed the Solar Trailer™, which can charge-up the Taurus Electro G2 in as little as five hours, absolutely free of charge and with zero emissions. Furthermore, when the Taurus Electro G2 is stored in the trailer during a week of bad weather, it will still be charged and ready to fly by the weekend. The Solar Trailer and Taurus Electro G2 are perfect companions and demonstrate how it is possible to fly free of charge, quietly and with absolutely zero emissions, with today’s technology.

The trailer offers both 12 V connection (to charge your aux. instruments etc.) and 110V/220V connections at front and back of the trailer, where you connect the Taurus Electro G2’s charger. Also present is the solar-system by-pass, so you can charge the aircraft inside the trailer when parked in the hangar/garage, for example. The buffer battery of the trailer has the capacity of 3 kWh and its energy can be transmitted directly into the Taurus Electro G2. The Solar Trailer gathers energy while the aircraft is not in it, so can charge the Taurus Electro G2 during the night with the energy that has accumulated during the day! The Pipistrel Taurus G4 is ready for the 2011 CAFE/NASA Green Flight Challenge!

Pipistrel’s press release announces that the CAFE Racer is completely new; it’s the first four-place electric aircraft to be flown

BEST ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT

in the world. The unique design has come about by grafting two Pipistrel Taurus aircraft together with a centre section which is some 5 metres (15 feet) wide and includes a centre pylon housing the electric engine and batteries designed to successfully carry this aircraft to the skies and hopefully to the completion of the 2011 CAFE/NASA challenge. The design bears some similarity to the twin Mustang fighter and even White Knight Two.

The aircraft is powered by a 145 kW brushless electric motor, which is centrally positioned between both fuselages and drives a large 2 metre (6 feet) custom two-blade propeller. The total wingspan is 21.4 metres (75 feet) making the aircraft wingspan not much smaller than a DC3! The undercarriage is retractable and the aircraft has extremely good gliding capabilities, although it is not designed as a glider but as a very efficient aeroplane utilising electric propulsion.

The 2011 CAFE/NASA green flight challenge is held between July 11th and July 17th 2011, at the Santa Rosa airport in northern California and has prize money of $1.65 million up for grabs. The aircraft will then compete in the EAA Airventure Electric Flight Challenge, held at this year’s Oshkosh event just a few weeks later. There is $60,000 prize money on offer there.

The CAFE Racer is purely a proof of concept aircraft, which Pipistrel is using as a test-bed for many of the technologies which will be introduced into their recently announced Panthera aircraft. After the completion of these competitions, it is expected the aircraft will be sold to somebody wanting a unique and one-off design for personal use, or to a company wanting to further investigate future propulsion technologies on an already proven airframe, with the ability to quickly replace or substitute the propulsion system.