Ultra Proficient

Pennsylvania-based Pipistrel-USA has won the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) comparative aircraft flight efficiency (CAFÉ) Green Flight Challenge after taking the first place with their electric plane called the Taurus G4 that was able to fly 320 kilometres in less than two hours. The contest, sponsored by Google, was created in order to spur the development of electric airplanes and efficient aircraft designs. The prize money was $1.35 million ( 6.08 crore).

The CAFÉ challenge was created to push aircraft engineers towards new, more efficient airplane designs that would usher in a new era of ultra-efficient flight, based on either electric engines or extremely efficient fuel-burning engines. According to NASA, 14 teams registered for the competition but only three were able to meet the contest’s requirements and the first and second place were occupied by electric airplanes.

The teams were asked to average 160 kilometres per hour over two hours, and to do so on the equivalent of one gallon of gas. Not only did Pipistrel manage this, but so did California-based e-Genius with its electric-powered plane ( for which it netted a second place prize of $1,20,000 – 54 lakh). Both the teams did so on just a little more than a half-gallon of fuel equivalent. They did twice as much as NASA and CAFE asked them to do but Pipistrel was slightly better than e-Genius.