Consortium Flies Hybrid-Electric Airplane Prototypes

Under the guidance of Pipistrel’s Vertical Solutions, a consortium in the European Union have concluded a project designed to advance alternative propulsion and regional air transport.

Julie Boatman

Thursday, November 04, 2021 at 04:27 PM ET

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The program displayed the Pipistrel Panthera flown in October to demonstrate the prototype hybrid-electric powerplant in a light single-engine airplane. Joze Kovacic-JUICE

Key Takeaways:

The MAHEPA project, an EU consortium led by Pipistrel, concluded its work on advancing modular hybrid-electric propulsion architectures for zero-emission regional air transport.
The project successfully demonstrated a highly efficient serial hybrid-electric propulsion system, achieving a 50% power increase and 25% weight reduction, through in-flight tests on two four-seat aircraft.
The modular design proves scalable for future larger aircraft (e.g., 19-seat regional planes), with ongoing development of liquid hydrogen-electric power systems towards megawatt-scale solutions.

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Under the guidance of Pipistrel’s Vertical Solutions, a consortium of eight partners in the European Union have concluded a project designed to advance alternative propulsion and regional air transport.

Its name speaks literally to what the project has achieved: MAHEPA (Modular Approach to Hybrid-Electric Propulsion Architecture) brought together DLR-German Aerospace Center, H2Fly GmbH, Compact Dynamics GmbH, Politecnico di Milano, TU Delft, and researchers from University of Ulm and University of Maribor under the umbrella Horizon Europe.