Originally Posted by
PiperCameron
.. I was amused to read in the news that Tecnam have pulled the pin on R&D of their "P-Volt" electric twin...
From a friend who works at Tecnam:
"
What I have learned the most in 18 years of #aircraft design, 12 of those with Professor Luigi Pascale teaching me everything he could, participating with a fantastic team to 10 airplanes designs including “my son”, my own design FR-01 Snap, is that the most important lesson in the aircraft design is that you should never fall in love with your idea(s), trying to make “aerobatics” around concepts just to demonstrate (mainly to yourself) that they are valid. There is just and only one judge in the #aviation, and it is the market. This is a strange era, where the aviation world is not easy to decrypt as it seems sometimes more interested in collecting and signing announcements… but the lesson doesn’t change: a product needs to fulfill real market needs, and if #technology doesn’t allow, looking at the reality is the best way instead of following “waves”. Did the Company abandon the #sustainability concept? Not really, as we are currently the single-source fleet supplier for Flight Schools with the lowest #emissions in the world. Sustainability is also this, not necessarily a trend made by keywords. In the next 10 years, the demand will be for 260.000 new pilots: training them with the Tecnam fleet could mean in saving up to 2,39 million tons of #co2 or up to 5.000 liters of fuel for every single CPL student… Do you think there is any possibility to do better from now to 2033? Sustainability is a consequence of efficient aircraft design, making possible the technology integration, once they are suited for the purpose. Be sure that, once they will be ready, we’ll be on the (real) market sooner than you can imagine!"