Last week, we saw Textron spend $242 million to purchase Pipistrel, skipping up to 11 years of R&D, acquiring some significant engineering talent, and obtaining a marketable electric aircraft, the Velis Electro, capable of approximately 24 minutes of flight time (plus FAA-required VFR reserves), based on initial testing conducted in the U.S. at Florida Tech.
Based entirely on this news, the outlook for electric aircraft seems a little dim. It would appear to me that getting to a serious 4-place electric cross-country airplane will take hundreds of millions of dollars in further investment, and potentially decades of development. Most GA aircraft manufacturers simply cannot afford that expense.
