Electric aerospace developer Beta Technologies achieved a milestone when its eVTOL Alia 250e prototype transitioned from powered-lift flight to wing-borne flight and back again, with a pilot on board, in Plattsburgh, New York.
The Alia VTOL (A250) features a fixed wing and is electrically powered by four vertical-lift propellers and one rear pusher-propeller. Once the aircraft reaches cruise speed and lift is achieved by the fixed wing, the vertical propellers power down.
The transition test was piloted by former U.S. Air Force test pilot Nate Moyer. “The transition is a massive technological hurdle for aviation, being able to safely cross that is huge,” Moyer said in the company’s YouTube video posted on April 23. “Obviously, it’s big for the business, but it’s also big for the industry as a whole.”
The Vermont-based company began development of the A250 and its eCTOL counterpart in 2019, and over the last five years the company has achieved several milestones, including setting the record for the longest manned flight of a battery-powered aircraft, covering 336 nautical miles in 2022. Since 2020 Beta’s Alia prototype has flown more than 40,000 nautical miles.
“We’ve been progressing toward this technical milestone for a while,” the company said in a press release. “It’s a new flight regime, and we fly all our missions with a pilot in the seat, so we approached it the best way we know how: by respecting physics. Like everything we do at BETA, we took a methodical, step-by-step approach.”
The Alia VTOL (A250) features a fixed wing and is electrically powered by four vertical-lift propellers and one rear pusher-propeller. Once the aircraft reaches cruise speed and lift is achieved by the fixed wing, the vertical propellers power down.
The transition test was piloted by former U.S. Air Force test pilot Nate Moyer. “The transition is a massive technological hurdle for aviation, being able to safely cross that is huge,” Moyer said in the company’s YouTube video posted on April 23. “Obviously, it’s big for the business, but it’s also big for the industry as a whole.”
The Vermont-based company began development of the A250 and its eCTOL counterpart in 2019, and over the last five years the company has achieved several milestones, including setting the record for the longest manned flight of a battery-powered aircraft, covering 336 nautical miles in 2022. Since 2020 Beta’s Alia prototype has flown more than 40,000 nautical miles.
“We’ve been progressing toward this technical milestone for a while,” the company said in a press release. “It’s a new flight regime, and we fly all our missions with a pilot in the seat, so we approached it the best way we know how: by respecting physics. Like everything we do at BETA, we took a methodical, step-by-step approach.”
