Pipistrel

Pipistrel is a manufacturer of light aircraft, renowned for innovation, pioneering, performance and efficiency. Pipistrel’s main products are single- to four-seat single engine piston aircrafts, sold worldwide. It employs 130 people, of which 30 in R&D. Its main R&D activities are aerodynamics, structures, CAD design, mechanical design, rapid prototyping, electronics design and structural and flight testing. It has extensive experience in managing complex projects, having launched 7 types of aircraft, most recently the four seat Panthera, which is to be certified according to EASA CS23 standards. It received numerous awards, most notably winning the NASA Green Flight Challenge 2011 sponsored by Google for the world’s most energy efficient aircraft by flying the world’s first four seater electric aircraft Taurus G4. It won the UKTI Award for innovation at 2010 European Business award. Pipistrel has used techniques of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) since 2007 for designing their aircraft. During this time, it became a proficient user of OpenFOAM and explored its use in a remote supercomputing environment. Pipistrel can therefore provide clear industrial cases where technologies developed within the project can be directly applied.