Electra.aero, Inc. (“Electra”), a next-gen aerospace company committed to decarbonizing aviation and opening new air transportation markets, today announced a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the U.S. Army valued at $1.9 million that funds powered wind tunnel testing of Electra’s hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft. The award enables the U.S. Army to explore Electra’s unique blown wing aircraft technology potential to broaden U.S. military capabilities, especially for fuel-efficient, resilient logistics in contested environments.

Electra’s eSTOL represents a new category of aircraft capability, combining helicopter-like operational flexibility with superior fixed wing-like performance and operating costs. The innovative combination of blown lift and eight distributed electric motors significantly increases wing lift, enabling ultra-short takeoffs and landings from spaces as small as a soccer field, and dramatically reduced noise and fuel use …

The 100% battery-powered Alia and its crew landed at the base’s 102nd Intelligence Wing for a demonstration on March 8.

The craft uses the same kind of fast chargers that power electric vehicles in under an hour.

The U.S. Air Force has been testing the aircraft the last few months, for potential use in cargo and rescue missions.

Its “roadshow” crew flew in from New Hampshire to the Joint Base for the recent demonstration.

Ross Elkort is a Flight Test Engineer with Vermont-based aerospace company BETA Technologies.

He told CAI that with no engine, Alia is much quieter than your average plane…

A three-month test of the battery-powered ALIA has the service looking to move ahead.

The U.S. Air Force wants to buy battery-powered planes after it deployed BETA Technologies’ ALIA aircraft to one of the service’s bases.

A final decision on when and how many of the electric conventional takeoff and landing planes the service will buy is a “rolling process,” but the service is “definitely on an acquisition path to get these into the inventory,” said Andrew Lau, AFWERX’s Agility Prime program manager. The program was launched in 2020 to propel electric aviation development.

The Defense Department, the world’s largest industrial producer of greenhouse gases, sees electric aircraft as a way to ease both maintenance and operational logistics in the Pacific.

“I think that the reduced reliance on fossil fuels and jet fuel in some of the locations might be very valuable [and] the ability to operate a reduced fuel footprint because the supply chain, just to get the fuel into some of these remote locations can be quite challenging,” Lau said in a Monday interview.

The ALIA aircraft recently finished a three-month deployment to Duke Field at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where it flew over 55 missions, including cargo and logistics missions and a simulated casualty evacuation, said Chris Caputo, a BETA test pilot. The electric plane also completed a simulated “maintenance recovery team” mission and picked up parts for an F-35.

“When you’re in a theater or you’re island hopping, things like that, you’re limited by the number of parts that can be moved around, the number of aircraft that are in the field to support the fighters, for example, so being able to put them out there supporting the F-35s was a huge win for us,” Lau said.

Aerospace designers at Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. in Manassas, Va. are moving forward in flight demonstration for a project to push the bounds of future electric aircraft by eliminating control surfaces like ailerons, rudders, and flaps.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced a $41.4 million order to Aurora in December to continue with the second and third phases of the Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) project.

This phase calls for Aurora Flight Sciences experts to test integrated subsystem components, and then carry out fabrication, assembly, ground test, and flight demonstration of an experimental CRANE electric aircraft.

This order is to exercise option 1 of the CRANE program’s second and third phase, and brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $89.6 million. Aurora won a $42.2 million contract in December 2022 for Crane program’s second and third phases.

Cutting back on fossil fuels is hard enough for ground transportation. Electric cars and trucks are more expensive than their ICE counterparts, and even if the TCO is lower, that doesn’t make it any easier to get approved for a higher payment. Even the EV heavyweights like Tesla are struggling to electrify long-haul trucking. But, these challenges are mostly related to the cost of batteries and the cost of infrastructure now. The technology has been proven out.

Changes are also happening with aviation. Efficient planes, small planes, and short-range VTOL are all somewhat easy to electrify. But, when the planes get bigger, everybody starts talking about hydrogen. There comes a point where the energy density is just too low to not have the plane be a battery hauler instead of a people or cargo hauler. And supersonic flight? That’s not happening with batteries or hydrogen any time soon because the energy needs to sustain that are just too crazy.

But, some military patents and other information that’s been surmised shows us that the military may end up pioneering fusion transportation. Not only is it the best way for militaries to electrify fast, fast planes, but the other advantages will make economic sense for militaries before it makes sense for civilian vehicles. (video continues after embedded video)

As the year draws to an end, it’s an opportunity to look back on the work carried out by Whole Force personnel throughout 2023 and appreciate a handful of the stories that focus on innovation and sustainability that didn’t hit the headlines.

January, the Royal Air Force used sustainable aviation fuel blended with regular jet fuel to achieve the first sustainable aviation fuel blend air-to-air refuelling of a Typhoon and C-130 Hercules aircraft from an RAF Voyager. The Voyager was previously used in successful initial trials in November 2022 where it flew on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. The leftover fuel from the Voyager trial was mixed with regular fuel at around 46-48%. The RAF worked with Air BP to re-certify the fuel and achieve the required standards needed for a safe and effective mission.

In April, military leaders, academics and industry joined forces with personnel and pupils from RAF Leeming to see first-hand how the base is playing a leading role in delivering a blueprint for a greener future. Attendees were able to interact with solar, wind, kinetic energy, and model-sized hydrogen cars at the RAF eXperimental (RAFX) hub based at RAF Leeming.

While the US Air Force is already making history with the first eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing) stationed at a military base, the US Marin…

Frank Puglia, EaglePicher’s Director of Research and Development is the guest on this episode of the Here’s an Idea podcast to discuss the Gripen E jet’s new lithium-ion battery…

Just south of his home in Brooklyn, N.Y., a young Terrence McKenna spent much of his childhood in Prospect Park tossing around wooden gliders and flying remote-

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering will help NASA develop the future of sustainable aviation as part of a five-year, $10 million project.