With little publicity did last week Slovenian company Pipistrel, that is specialized in production of ultra-light aircraft break another important milestone. On the second of January this year company's first ultra-light electric airplane (if we exclude electric glider Taurus), Alpha Electro became the first ever electric airplane, that took off and flew over Australia.

Project of taking the first electric airplane into the air was no one-day job. Being first of its kind Alpha Electro had receive Special Certificate of Airworthiness from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). The process itself thus started back in October 2017, when Pipistrel's distributor for Australia, X-Air Australia began with the task of acquiring necessary documentation and permissions.

Two days of testing without a single problem

Flight began on one of the busiest airports on the Southern hemisphere, Perth's Jandakot Airport. After take-off, plane made two circles around Jandakot before returning safely back to the ground. In following two days, airplane made a total of 7 hours of flying before the hand-over to its new owner, Perth-based company Electro.Aero was made. There, it will serve as a training airplane.

New owner's representative, Mr. Richard Charlton, the finance director of Electro.Aero was also on board during the test flight. He expressed a good level of satisfaction on how the airplane behaved, once in the air: »It was very much without drama. We were just in the pattern behind a normal airplane and the control tower was very excited. They knew all about what was happening.« He pointed out some other advantages over normal airplanes with piston engines, such as significantly lower maintenance costs and lower level of noise, proving him, that buying this type of airplane was a right decision.

Jure Šujica
Photo: Pipistrel