PIPISTREL VELIS ELECTRO: NOW CERTIFIED IN THE USA

There is so much buzz around the emergence of electric airplanes that it is easy to forget what animates most of the enterprise is press releases. Cutting through this background noise is the innovative Slovenian company, Pipistrel. In 2020, as it promised it would, it announced the first certified electric airplane in the United States, the Velis Electro.

In the US the Velis Electro is certified under EASA CS-LSA rules. It is a day VFR only. Clear plastic doors provide an expansive view out the sides of the aircraft. Unfortunately, this is not very far. With its 22-kWh battery system, the Velis is essentially a 40- to 50-minute airplane and allowing for the US required endurance reserve, this is 20-minute flight time and that may be pushing it at gross weight.

Thus far in the US and probably forever, there is no dispensation from the 30-minute VFR minimum fuel requirement, including experimental aircraft, which approval the Velis flies under in the US. The Velis POH performance section allows for a 10-minute reserve. While the Velis is finding buyers in Europe, I suspect this is the early adopter market. With its short legs, it is hard to see how the Velis fits into the US market as anything but a technology demonstrator, albeit a refined one.

Thanks to Pipistrel founder Ivo Boscarol's unswerving dedication to low-emission transportation and electric flight, the company has been at the electric airplane game longer than any others we know of. It pioneered an electric motor glider called the Taurus, introduced in 2011 and although it has not sold many, that served as a stepping stone for a proof-of-concept electric airplane called the WATTSUp in 2014 followed by a production airplane, the Alpha Electro.

Pipistrel has found success with its light, composite two-seat aircraft, especially in the European market. A trainer version, the Rotax-powered Alpha Trainer, is a strong seller for Pipistrel. In the Alpha Electro, Pipistrel learned enough about batteries, inverters and motors to understand that (a) total battery capacity is (and remains) a significant limitation and (b) so is keeping the batteries healthy enough to deliver rated capacity. Here, the Velis Electro jumps ahead, with an improved battery system and water cooling to keep them thermally stable.