News l The CAFE Green Flight Challenge winner won $1.35 million

The CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) Green Flight Challenge which backed by Nasa is aimed to make green air travel a realistic possibility.  NASA has awarded $1.35 million to the crew behind the Taurus G4 plane designed and created by the Pipistrel-USA team.

Taurus G4 has two separate fuselages that can seat 4 passengers. The two fuselages are joined together with a huge motor and batteries taking up the middle space.The Taurus G4 won the prize by flying 200 miles from Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif., in less than two hours. There were 14 airplanes in the competition, but the Pipistrel won easily. It nearly "doubled the fuel-efficiency requirement" for the contest.

The requirements were to fly 200 miles in two hours or less on less than a gallon of fuel (or the equivalent in electricity) for each passenger. The Pipistrel airplane used a bit more than a half-gallon of gas for each passenger. Most of the airplanes in the contest used electric engines, however, some entrants were powered by gasoline or biofuel.

Among the 14 airplanes competing, only three met the requirements for the competition, according to the Press-Democrat of Santa Rosa. The $1.35 million award is the largest in the history of aviation. All told, the competing teams invested more than $4 million in their airplanes.A second prize of $120,000 was awarded to the very close runner-up, California-based Team e-Genius, while the third entrant - a gasoline-powered plane from Florida-based Phoenix Air team - left empty handed.