Pipistrel Alpha Electros Come to California

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

News from Joseph Oldham, founder of the Sustainable Aviation Project, and Michael Coates, United States master distributor for Pipistrel Aircraft, heralds the largest delivery of electric training aircraft to date.  Four Pipistrel Alpha Electro Trainers showed up at Fresno, California’s Chandler Airport, all part of the Sustainable Aviation Project.  Described as “a public-private collaboration to reduce the cost of flight training through the use of all-electric general aviation airplanes,” the Project might become a role model for future electric flight training. On March 19, two 18-wheel trucks delivered two 40-foot shipping containers.  Each container carried two Alpha Electros, two chargers, and a pair of replacement battery packs for each airplane.  It took a mere two hours for a volunteer crew of up to six to remove the aircraft and chargers from the containers, leaving an X-Alpha simulator to be sent on its lonely way to Cypress College in Los Angeles. Michael Coates reported, “After removing all the plastic wrapping it …