Monday, May 12, 2008

Two Seater “Green” Plane For Jetsetters Looking For A Way To Reduce Their Carbon Footprint

People who clock up flying miles faster than the “Doctor” on his Yamaha M1 and are worried about how much they are polluting the air, fret not, cause Pipistrel has come with a two-seater, electric-powered commercial jet which it plans to mass produce at the end of the year.


Hope all you CEO’s and “rich enough to afford a private jet” people out there do take notice that Taurus Electro gliders from Pipistrel costs $133,000. You can now jet around the globe and sport the “green” label too, which is the latest thing to show off considering the hordes of celebrities lining up in front of hybrid car maker’s doors to buy their products; cause they wanna go green.

Enough of me ranting about erasing the guilt of humanity and lets get to the features and specs of this aircraft. Ivo Boscarol of owner of Pipistrel based in Slovenia has come with a worthy successor for Sinus, a microlight motorglider named Taurus. Taurus according to Pipistrel is a fully equipped aircraft with a separate ventilation system for each pilot and side-by-side seating arrangement; featuring a fully retractable engine and glide ratio of at least 1:40; also featuring a total rescue ballistic parachute system which saves the aircraft and both pilots, all instruments, radio etc. at a reasonable price. Whew!

The “green” part comes here. The internal combustion engine is substituted with its electric counterpart. Pipistrel says that “Using the latest findings in the fields of batteries and charge storage as well as the recent developments of synchronous electric motors with small mass and high specific torque, the flight of electric-powered aircraft can now become a reality.”

Pipistrel has not delved deeper into the technicalities of the engine on its website and I could not get my hands on any aviation magazine which has featured Taurus Electro Glider. Hence, please visit Pipistrel website for more details or contact them. My job is done here. I have just provided a spark and you guys reading the posting have to make the fire. Oops! Not too environment friendly is it? Lets hope Taurus Electro Glider lives up to its expectations.

Source: Pipistrel.

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