The two majority owners of Pipistrel, founder Ivo Boscarol and daughter Taja, have donated 25 million Euros ($A37 million) to the Slovenian municipality of Ajdovščina after selling the company to Textron Aviation in March.
Twenty million Euros has been set aside for the construction of a health clinic and infrastructure for a multi-purpose helicopter service in the new logistics center at Ajdovščina Airport, four million Euros will be spent on the construction of an aviation history museum with a science center in Ajdovščina, and one million Euros will go towards landscaping projects.
In accepting the donation, Ajdovščina mayor Tadej Beočanin announced that the municipality would work closely with the Boscarols and do its best to implement the set projects for the benefit of the entire community.
Ivo Boscarol praised the fact that the municipality had approached the projects "promptly and diligently", and announced that he and Taja would continue to strive for the development of the local community.
Since selling Pipistrel to Textron, Boscarol has established a new company Boscarol d. o. o. and plans to invest in real estate, especially housing construction.
Boscarol established the company in 1989, intially flying prototypes after dark due to restrictions enforced by the government of what was then Yugoslavia. Consequently, Boscarol named the company after the word pipistrello, the Italian word for bat.