The age of the electric airplane has been much written about but far less demonstrated and delivered. So when Pipistrel Aircraft, the innovative Slovenian company, announced last April at Aero that it was ready to deliver a functional electric trainer, it drew crowds of the curious. But is the technology really ready for broad market distribution or does it remain a curiosity waiting for more mature technology?
Based on a recent trip to Pipistrel’s factory, where we examined the new Alpha Electro and flew it twice, we would say it’s somewhere between. Apart from its short flight legs—about an hour, give or take—the Electro is all but indistinguishable from its gasoline equivalent. It performs similarly, flies the same and even sounds somewhat similar from inside the cabin. It’s more expensive than the gasoline version, but Pipistrel expects that price to come down as batteries gain more capacity at lower cost and motor prices decrease with more competition from additional vendors.