NATURAL HYBRIDS
Aeronautic innovator Pipistrel has rewritten the rules of the sky when it comes to uplifting personal transport. The RX 450h has done the same on terra firma. Rod Mackenzie heads off to Slovenia to meet the company’s founder Ivo Boscarol.
Being a technology junkie isn’t easy. That’s because most major breakthroughs, Lexus Hybrid Drive included, usually happen behind closed doors. The nearest I come to witnessing the birth of tomorrow’s world is flicking through Wired. That’s where I came across a story about electric aircraft being the future of aviation, led by Slovenian company Pipistrel.
This small firm has built an aircraft that can fly up to 1,000km a day, helped by rechargeable batteries. I fire off an email – any chance I could drop by? After all, I am due to pick up the RX 450h from Brussels for a test drive, so it’s a mere 1,200km detour south-east. What’s more, taking this full hybrid of the road to meet its contemporary of the air sounds like the ultimate blind date. An email from Pipistrel’s boss pings straight back – yes, of course I can visit.
THE ROAD TO SLOVENIA
Spending all day on a motorway tends to depress me, but the RX 450h is like a softly spoken psychologist – that lower-case ‘h’ could stand for hypnotherapy. My treatment starts in suburban Brussels, where the two electric motors take silent control.
By the time I join the motorway I’m feeling optimistic and have barely noticed the smooth transition to engine power, the 3.5-litre 24-valve V6 engine supplying impressive surges of overtaking speed. Then there’s my ingenious little helper, the Remote Touch controller, which saves me stretching to direct the satellite navigation.
After a night in the Austrian town of Villach, the morning brings our crossing into Slovenia and the journey’s highlight, the 1,611m Vršič Pass across the Julian Alps. Built in 1915 by Russian prisoners of war to supply the Soča Front, the pass was one of the bloodiest and lesser-known fronts of World War I.
I’d been expecting my own battle of sorts with this road. With some 50 precipitous hairpins, each one cobbled, it’s a treacherously narrow switchback ride that can test any vehicle. Yet despite its size, the RX 450h hugs the road with the assurance of a sports sedan and the precisely weighted Electric Power Steering (EPS) swiftly irons out every hairpin.
Summit conquered, I follow the milky-turquoise Soča River as it winds its way down through the steep valleys of Triglav National Park. As I sweep into the rolling Vipava Valley, it feels natural to be heading towards the grassy airfield of Pipistrel’s headquarters – where better for such a silent glider to touch down?
MEETING BOSCAROL
‘I live for technologies,’ says Ivo Boscarol, the 52-year-old founder and general manager of Pipistrel. ‘But my first priority is to protect the way of life we have now.’
Boscarol became fascinated by flight while growing up next to the grassy airstrip here in Ajdovščina. After studying economics and working as a photographer, he returned to his first passion in the early 1980s and quickly became interested in finding ways to innovate without sacrificing safety or efficiency. ‘For me, the engine is not important for flying – only for take-off,’ he says. ‘Engine failure must not be a catastrophe – you must still be able to fly when in the air.’
Pipistrel has come a long way since Boscarol’s early days fitting engines to hang-gliders. Today the company manufactures the world’s most advanced light aircraft, known as ultralights or Personal Air Vehicles (PAVs), and in 2008 they won a $100,000 NASA prize for the world’s best overall PAV. Their latest project is the Taurus Electro, a battery-powered glider.
Boscarol’s enthusiasm for efficiency and environmental protection stretches way beyond aircraft. ‘I’m convinced that energy must be produced where you need the energy,’ says the RX 400h owner, eagerly eyeing up the RX 450h parked alongside. Exploring Pipistrel’s innovative new home, which features Slovenia’s largest solar power plant, has geothermal heat exchangers and makes maximum use of natural light, Boscarol’s vision makes perfect sense.
So what’s next for Pipistrel? Plans are well underway to create a four-seat hybrid aircraft by the end of 2011. They are also working with the nearby University of Nova Gorica to develop organic photovoltaic solar cells that can sit on a plane’s wings and charge the battery during flight. And there’s a collaboration with the University of Stuttgart to test the feasibility of a two-seat, hydrogen-powered aircraft.
Thrilled by this insider’s peek into the future – the birth of tomorrow – I ease back into the RX 450h and set off for Brussels, gliding all the way.
'I'M CONVINCED THAT ENERGY MUST BE PRODUCED WHERE YOU NEED THE ENERGY'
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