Roscobbc
Moderator
I've always had an interest in aviation, mainly warbirds, light aviation and perhaps more recently ultra-light/microlight aircraft made possible by new materials and lightweight high output engines. Our local unlicensed airfield, Damyns Hall has seen significant growth and activities over the last few years and not having visited since Covid I decided to drop-in and see what is going-on. TBA I would have thought being a saturday afternoon there would have been more activity than a Tiger Moth and a navy blue Piper or Cessna (or similar ex-WW2/Korean type plane) both doing 'bump and grind' circuits. There were a couple of these electric powered composite/carbon fibre/kevlar Pipistrelle aircraft anchored-up, one just finishing a re-charge following a flight before being putting away in a hanger.
Seemingly this is the only electric light aircraft fully certified for flight and flight training in Europe and UK. Flight duration of this Slovakian manufactured plane is 50 minutes (with a 20 minute safety reserve).......so a flight range of perhaps 80 to 100 miles depending on headwind etc. Operating costs are said to be less than £5 to charge the aircraft for the said duration......compared (so they say) with £25 or so for ICE powered equivalent. Interested? yes, so was I untiI looking at the price for one in the UK £170/£200K!!!!.....and there it will remain.....in the 'interesting' box!
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Seemingly this is the only electric light aircraft fully certified for flight and flight training in Europe and UK. Flight duration of this Slovakian manufactured plane is 50 minutes (with a 20 minute safety reserve).......so a flight range of perhaps 80 to 100 miles depending on headwind etc. Operating costs are said to be less than £5 to charge the aircraft for the said duration......compared (so they say) with £25 or so for ICE powered equivalent. Interested? yes, so was I untiI looking at the price for one in the UK £170/£200K!!!!.....and there it will remain.....in the 'interesting' box!
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