A Ride in the Pipistrel WattsUp

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Pipistrel has built what looks to be, at least in the video below, an attractive and highly functional airplane in the WattsUp, an electronic conversion of their Alpha Trainer high-wing training aircraft. In the video, Tine Tomazic, responsible for electric aircraft design at Pipistrel, shows the ease of making battery swaps on the airplane, similar to those of electric motorcycles or scooters, and takes photojournalist Jean-Marie Urlacher for a ride around what your editor assumes is Pipistrel’s Ajdovscina, Slovenia factory and field. Note the conversational tone in the cockpit and the lack of headphones, one benefit of electric aircraft that would lead to their being great training aircraft.  Aerobuzz, a French aviation blog, though, does lodge a complaint about the propeller noise: “Bit noisy (we hear only the sound of propeller),” but goes on to compliment other aspects of the craft. “Immediate start without engine warm[up], clean, easy to handle aircraft on the ground as Alpha Trainer, the WattsUp… would …