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Pipistrel and Green Aerolease to help accelerate transition of electric aviation in Europe; includes 50-strong aircraft order

Pip­istrel Air­craft has announced a part­ner­ship with Green Aerolease to help accel­er­ate the tran­si­tion of elec­tric avi­a­tion in France and oth­er coun­tries across Europe, which will start with an order for 50 of Pip­istrel’s Velis Elec­tro air­craft.

The Sloven­ian man­u­fac­tur­er is cur­rent­ly the only com­pa­ny in the world to obtain cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the Euro­pean Union Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Agency (EASA) for its elec­tric air­craft. Work­ing with the French Fed­er­a­tion of Aero­nau­tics, the 50 air­craft will be offered for rent to pilot schools and clubs to ensure the new gen­er­a­tion of pilot train­ing.

Ivo Boscarol, Founder and CEO of Pip­istrel Air­craft, said: “I am delight­ed to see the con­fi­dence giv­en to us by Green Aerolease who decid­ed to com­mit with us to par­tic­i­pate in the reduc­tion of the envi­ron­men­tal impact of the aero­nau­ti­cal sec­tor.

“The Euro­pean cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of our Velis Elec­tro, designed for ini­tial train­ing of pilots, is an impor­tant step towards the devel­op­ment of a car­bon neu­tral-fleet of air­craft, respect­ful of the envi­ron­ment. This part­ner­ship will allow the use of zero-emis­sion air­craft to the clubs and schools who are not in the posi­tion to invest in procur­ing an air­craft fleet, but they can afford rea­son­able month­ly rental fees.”

In Europe, there are more than 100 small air­ports which have severe flight restric­tions, or the train­ing there is not allowed because of noise. Pip­istrel’s Velis Elec­tro emits only 60 dB of noise and the expect­ed deploy­ment of the 50 air­craft, start­ing in France, is expect­ed to be rolled out lat­er this year.

With­in the next three years, 200 of Pip­istrel’s elec­tric air­craft are to be deployed in France and to oth­er coun­tries in the com­ing years through AAS (Air­craft as A Ser­vice). Finesse Max, Pip­istrel’s dis­trib­u­tor in France, will work with Green Aerolease to man­age the sup­port, after-sales ser­vice and main­te­nance net­work in order to keep the high­est avail­abil­i­ty for the Velis fleet.

Green Aerolease is a sub­sidiary of the W3 group which organ­is­es the pro­vi­sion of decar­bonised light air­craft by propos­ing a ‘ready for use’ rental ser­vice to aero­nau­ti­cal oper­a­tors, such as aero clubs and pilot­ing schools. The W3 group was found­ed in 2009 by Charles Cabil­lic, which acts essen­tial­ly in the dig­i­tal field, invest­ment field and air mobil­i­ty. 

Cabil­lic, Founder of W3 and Green Aerolease, said: “We are par­tic­u­lar­ly proud to make this part­ner­ship with Pip­istrel Air­craft, pio­neer of break­through inno­va­tion in the light avi­a­tion sec­tor.

“I am con­vinced that the aero­nau­ti­cal sec­tor has a great future, with the pro­gres­sive arrival with­in two to three years, of light elec­tric or hybrid air­craft designed for busi­ness trav­el or leisure avi­a­tion, because it will per­mit to revive the French avi­a­tion.

These future air­craft are, indeed, an answer to the grow­ing stakes of region­al mobil­i­ty to ensure the eco­nom­i­cal region­al con­ti­nu­ity and the serv­ing of mid­dle-sized cities.”

Jean-Luc Char­ron, Pres­i­dent of the French Fed­er­a­tion of Aero­nau­tics, added: “The French Fed­er­a­tion of Aero­nau­tics has always sup­port­ed inno­va­tion. With Pip­istrel, we cre­at­ed a FabLab two years ago at Tou­s­sus-Le-Noble to test this brand-new elec­tric air­craft.

“Thus, more than 200 flight hours were done with great per­for­mances, very impor­tant noise reduc­tion and also a tremen­dous reduc­tion of car­bon emis­sions. After the exper­i­men­ta­tion, it is now time to deploy the air­craft fleet, and I am very proud to sup­port this project which will allow clubs to cre­ate a new dynam­ic in this aero­nau­ti­cal world which is liv­ing an unprece­dent­ed trans­for­ma­tion.”

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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