NASA issues award in green aviation competition.

Pipistrel-USA.com and the second-place team, EGenius of Ramona, Calif. -- both of which used electric-powered aircraft -- achieved twice the fuel efficiency requirement of the competition. That means they flew 200 miles using just over a half-gallon of fuel equivalent per passenger.

That's roughly 400 passenger-miles/gallon of aviation fuel (equivalent) at 100 mph, which compares very favorably with the ~70-80 passenger-miles/gallon for a fully-loaded commercial airliner. However it would take roughly 6 times as long to get to your destination.

UPDATE: Now we find out that Pipistrel does not plan to commercialize the winning aircraft ....