Tech entrepreneur orders 50 Pipistrel Velis electric aircraft

Interesting news coming from Brittany, in the westernmost tip of France, and involving an electric aircraft type that is no stranger to these pages.

If you have listened to the podcast episodes we did we Ivo Boscarol and the electric flight world record team, you may be familiar already with the Pipistrel Velis, the first certified all-electric aircraft.

Well, Brest-based Green Aerolease, the brainchild of serial Breton entrepreneur Charles Cabillic, has just ordered 50 Pipistrel Velis to lease them to operators all over France, mainly flight schools and aeroclubs.

Range is still a big issue when it comes to all-electric aircraft (you can learn more why here) but this is less of a problem when you are basically flying short cycles around a given airfield, such as training flights do. So, no wonder flight schools are among the early adopters of electric flight technology.

In Scandinavia, flight school OSM Aviation has also placed an order for 60 electric aircraft, although in that case it will be eFlyer aircraft, made by US company Bye Aviation. These will be start arriving, in principle, before the end of this year.

In Switzerland, H55, the project led by André Borschberg, of Solar Impulse fame (whom we’ve also had here on the podcast!) is also aiming at the flight school market for its first model of electrically-powered aircraft, which is currently undergoing testing.

Besides the environmental benefits, electric engines are also interesting to flight schools, because while the general principles of basic training don’t differ much from those on conventional aircraft, these electric motors have a smaller number of moving parts, so maintenance is more simple and can squeeze more hours between cycles.