VR Leasing Plans to Offer 20 Pipistrel Voyager Trainers for Lease in 2027

VR Leasing, a Chicago-based lessor specialising in piston aircraft financing and leasing for flight schools and universities across the United States, plans to add the Pipistrel Voyager to its leasing portfolio in 2027. The company expects to make 20 Voyager aircraft available for lease during the year, with first deliveries anticipated in Q1 and further deliveries planned across all four quarters. The offer is intended to give flight training organisations an alternative to outright aircraft purchase.

The two-seat Voyager is powered by a Rotax 912 ULS engine and features Garmin AXIS avionics, a three-axis autopilot, an integrated ballistic parachute and a haptic stall-warning system. It is designed to align with the FAA's Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) framework and is intended to support IFR training, intentional-spin instruction and progression from initial to advanced training. Published preliminary specifications include a 552 lb useful load and a maximum range of 740 nautical miles, including IFR reserves.

Initial discussions with prospective customers point to interest in several uses: some operators are evaluating the aircraft for hour-building and later-stage pilot qualifications, while others are considering it for ab initio training or the full training curriculum.

Epic Flight Academy, a US flight training provider, became the Voyager's launch customer in July 2026 with a firm order for 10 aircraft, with deliveries beginning in 2027. The order carries options for 20 additional aircraft in 2028 and another 20 in 2029, bringing the potential total to 50 aircraft. For North American support, Pipistrel established a spare-parts warehouse at Textron eAviation's headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, in July 2025.

Flight schools face a capital-intensive fleet decision every time a new trainer type arrives. A lessor that takes aircraft onto its own balance sheet changes that decision: a school can try a type for a defined term instead of committing to purchase. The Voyager reaches the US market through two channels at once, a firm launch order from Epic Flight Academy and a lease pool from VR Leasing, which spreads early exposure to the type across more than one buyer.

The range of uses prospective customers are discussing, from hour-building to ab initio to full curriculum, shows the type has not yet settled into a single training role. Which of those uses dominates will shape how the 20 leased aircraft are placed, and the spare-parts warehouse in Wichita is part of the support picture those schools will weigh alongside lease terms.

The next milestone is the Q1 2027 first deliveries, which will show whether the lease pool and the Epic Flight Academy order are being filled on the same timetable. The exercise of Epic's 2028 and 2029 options would be the clearest sign of how the launch customer rates the aircraft in service.