“Pipistrel Alpha Electro: The trainer of the future?” is an AOPA article about the electric airplane that is closest to realistic availability and practical use.
Some interesting facts that I learned about this Slovenian-made product…
The Siemens (German-made?) 80 hp motor isn’t all that cheap, at $10,000, but it costs about as much to overhaul as a light aircraft alternator ($400). The motor will last for 6,000 hours with two overhauls in the middle. With 80 horsepower this machine will have the same power as the original Rotax-powered Diamond Katana, a thoroughly awesome trainer with an engine that U.S. operators found tough to maintain (partly due to poor support from Rotax).
Perhaps the age of hard-of-hearing flight instructors will be coming to an end: “The aircraft is quiet. There is some noise, but it’s mostly from the propeller, and headset-free conversation is no problem, even at takeoff power.”
No innovation can survive an encounter with U.S. bureaucracy: “One big hitch in the Alpha Electro’s future is the United States’ LSA rules, which make no provision for electrically powered aircraft. So for the time being the airplane lives in a sort of regulatory limbo. It can be flown in the Experimental category, but this permits no commercial activity—including flight training, the airplane’s principal mission.”
The batteries can be recharged in just 45 minutes, meaning that a flight school scheduling students into 2-hour blocks might just barely be able to substitute this plane for current trainers.
Who else is excited by this development?
Why are most small piston aircraft so incredibly noisy inside and out? I realize that saving weight is a main goal but it doesn’t seem like they are trying very hard. Modern piston automobiles are whisper quiet but small planes seem to make the same amount of noise that they did in Lindbergh’s era.
Philip, you might also be interested in following the Sun Flyer http://www.aeac.aero/
Also the fact that the airplane can only fly for 1 hr/ 80 miles really limits its usefulness to just training. 270 lbs. of battery get you about as far as 40 lbs. of avgas. Electric motors are great compared to piston engines but the bottleneck has always been battery technology. Improvements in battery tech have been very incremental while what’s really needed is a breakthru by a least one order of magnitude. But no one has been able to find that despite decades of trying and maybe there are constraints that will prevent any breakthru in the foreseeable future.
Battery density has been promised to increase over the past two decades. It has happened, but at a snail’s pace.
I think flight schools will have a battery cart with two sets charging while the plane is in the plane is out on a lesson. When it returns part of the pre-flight for the student will be replacing the batteries. (All of my lessons started with full tanks.)
I am excited by it in part because I feel like in another five years Tesla will be making batteries that will really change the game. So an electric Icon A5 would be possible. That would be a really nice toy.
Perhaps the 45-minute battery charge time can be supplemented/replaced by a battery pack design that can be easily and quickly swapped in and out between flights?
The noise improvement seems like a huge win for instructional aircraft.
Would be interesting to know if adding solar cells to the wing area would be enough to offset the weight increase.
Next up: Electric helicopters!
2 hours of preflight & postflight for 1 hour of flying. He didn’t mention the flight time for 1 passenger or whether the 2nd passenger can be replaced by extra batteries. Maybe a win for a high end executive commuter at Google. The reduction in fuel & maintenance costs would make it much cheaper to fly from a 10,000 sq foot mansion in Nevada to their private airport at Moffett field than rent a 450 sq foot apartment anywhere in Calif*.
Let’s hope that there are some economies of scale. I want one!
As far as I know the battery is easily swappable. Another point worth researching is whether they managed to find a way around the sales restrictions to US. As usual there’s a problem with some kind of trade agreement related to aircraft. The last I heard they were planning on bypassing it by building a second factory just over the border in Italy (which has that agreement with the US). Coincidentally, a few days ago the company announced a contract to supply just shy of 200 trainers to the Indian AF/Navy. Those are not electric though but rather the related Virus SW version.