Electric avionics opens a new era for aviation

The award-winning electric-powered airliner in the United States could open a new era in aviation.

Space reported in 2009 that NASA held a green light exercise competition called CAFE Green Light Challenge to encourage people to design, assemble and demonstrate fuel efficient planes. The results of the contest have just been announced.

Pipistrel-USA.com , a team from the University of Pennsylvania, won the first prize and received a $ 1.35 million reward. The second prize, worth $ 120,000, goes to a team called eGenius and is from California. Both teams did not use fuel, but operated on electricity.

"We have just demonstrated that electric planes have left science fiction and come out in real life ," said Joe Parrish, NASA director of technology.

14 teams participated in the CAFE Green Light Challenge. The organizers asked the crews to build 322km of airplanes in less than two hours and use less than 3.78 liters of gasoline per passenger. Only three of the 14 teams qualified.

Two years ago the idea of flying over a 322km distance with an electric plane appeared only in fiction. We can now wait for the era of electric aircraft , "said Jack Langelaan, Pipistrel -USA.com's chief executive.

The airplane model has been around since the 1970s, but today most of them (both manned and unmanned) fly in trials.