[ Thanks to Tim Welles for this submission – Ed. ].
October 3, 2011 – Team Pipistrel along with partners at Penn State University, including team leader Jack Langelaan, was announced as the winner of the NASA Green Flight Challenge during a ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center in California. Team Pipistrel, flying the Taurus G4, was able to achieve an efficiency rating of 403.5 passenger miles per gallon. The second-place finisher, e-Genius, achieved 375.8 passenger miles per gallon, which is far more than the 200-mile standard required for the contest. In announcing the prize, Joe Parrish of NASA said the competition aircraft are five to 10 times more efficient that normal aircraft, emphasizing that existing aircraft could not achieve this efficiency and “innovation was required.”
Pipistrel Taurus G4 in flight (click to enlarge)
The team used a ClearNav Flight Computer (www.clearnav.net) as a moving map navigation device to help them fly the complex course as efficiently as possible.
Team Leader Jack Langelaan commented that “Importing turnpoint files and programming tasks was a breeze. The ClearNav was a huge asset to our team.”
And pilot Dave Morss observed: “The ClearNav was very easy to read even in direct sunlight and the remote control became second nature after a flight or two.”
The ClearNav is shown to the right of the Taurus G4 instrument panel in the photo below.
ClearNav in Pipistrel Taurus G4 Panel (click to enlarge)
For more information on the Pipistrel Taurus G4 and the NASA 2011 Green Flight Challenge, go to http://www.pipistrel-usa.com/blog1 , watch a video interview with the designer, and watch the video below, which provides an overview of the NASA Green Flight Challenge.
