Alpha Electro
The world's first certified electric plane you can buy today
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Hunter's comment
Alpha Electro is the first fully electric commercially available 2-seater light sport aircraft (LSA) made by a Slovenian company named Pipistrel.
Weighing in at only 350 kg (771 lb) it's so light you can literally move it around.
In addition to the recreational use it's mainly targeted for flight schools. In fact it's the first and only electric aircraft certified for flight training in the world.
Ivo Boscarol, Pipistrel's CEO sums it up as following:
"With the ever growing cost of fuel it is time to rethink pilot training. Our solution is the first practical all-electric trainer! Technologies developed specially for this aircraft cut the cost of ab-initio pilot training by as much as 70%, making flying more affordable than ever before. Being able to conduct training on smaller airfields closer to towns with zero C02 emissions and minimum noise is also a game changer! - [source]
Besides zero emissions it's in the same price range (130,000 $) as aircrafts with a petrol engine of the same size.
(https://www.pipistrel.si/plane/alpha-electro/overview)
Batteries
The Alpha Electro has 2 battery packs - one in the front compartment and one in the back compartment. The two 10kWh baterry packs can last for one hour of flight time with a 30 minutes worth of reserve time.
Front baterry compartment
The batteries can be recharged in 45 minutes.
Electric Engine
The electric engine with 60kW power produces a cruising speed of 86 knots (159 km/h or 99 mph) and top speed of 135 knots (250 km/h or 155 mph). It is also much smaller and narrower than a regular petrol engine.
The cost of running the electric engine is about 3$ per hour, which is one tenth of the cost compared to a petrol engine of a Cessna 172 (30$ per hour).
This results in saving 90$ per hour in costs for an aspiring pilot in training.
The location of the electric motor
Electric powered instrument system
Alpha Electro has a modern electric powered instrument system (EPIS) with GPS and a touch screen. It diplays the speed, status of the batteries, location etc.
Electric powered instrument system
Emergency measures
In the case of a control system failure or a catastrophic air frame failure where you couldn't glide safely to the ground the Alpha Electo is fitted with a balistic parachute.
The balistic parachute will launch a rocket out of the roof of the air frame and pull a parachute up on which the airplane will safely float to the ground.
Location of the parachute
Flying the Alpha Electro
Link
https://www.pipistrel.si/plane/alpha-electro/overview
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