Summer 2023 Flight-Test Campaign Planned

On 12 June 2023, Electra unveiled the newly-completed test-vehicle by which it intends to vet its hybrid-electric Short Take-Off and Landing (eSTOL) platform. The event marked a significant milestone in the company’s stated mission of helping decarbonize aviation and revolutionize urban and regional transportation.

Founded in 2020 with the goal of decarbonizing aviation and bringing air transportation to every part of the world, Manassas, Virginia-based Electra. Aero (Electra) is staffed by experts and collaborators formerly of Boeing, Airbus, MIT, Pilatus, Hondajet, and Aurora Flight Sciences.

The test-aircraft rolled out of Electra’s development facility at Manassas, Virginia’s Manassas Regional Airport (MNZ) during a ceremony attended by guests representing the aviation industry, government, the investor community, and Electra customers.

Imaginatively dubbed the Electra Model EA-2 Goldfinch—in celebration of the songbird indigenous to Virginia—the bright-yellow aircraft makes use of a distributed-electric, blown-lift propulsion scheme by dint of which it is capable of taking-off and landing over very short distances.

Electra’s powertrain comprises a hybrid-electric architecture that internally recharges a collection of high-power battery packs which, in turn, energize a turbo-generator that powers eight electric motors and their respective rotors. Subject motor-rotor assemblies provide both forward thrust and induced lift over the aircraft’s braced, high-wing, thereby occasioning the STOL capability denoted in the machine’s designation.

The two-seat piloted Technology Demonstrator (TD) showcases Electra’s eSTOL technology at full-scale and is slated to undergo an ambitious, summer 2023 flight-test campaign carefully devised to track the eSTOL’s performance and inform the design of Electra’s planned nine-passenger production aircraft.

Electra Aero founder and CEO John S. Langford stated: “In the three-years since we founded Electra, we’ve designed our eSTOL aircraft, validated our blown-lift technology with a sub-scale demonstrator, and run a fully-integrated test of our 150-kilowatt hybrid-electric generator at full-scale. Now we’re ready to test the entire system with this technology demonstrator aircraft. We can’t wait to fly this plane and show the world what our eSTOL aircraft can do.”

Electra sets forth its future eSTOL production aircraft will deliver helicopter-like operational flexibility while maintaining the safety and favorable economics characteristic of conventional fixed-wing aircraft. The company plans to fly a prototype of its nine-passenger production aircraft in 2025 and aspires to see the contraption certified and in-service under FAA Part 23 in 2028.

The design of Electra’s eSTOL aircraft incorporates a degree of flexibility commensurate with the ready adaptation of its propulsion system to advancements in power-generation and storage technologies—e.g., improved hydrogen fuel-cells or lighter, higher-capacity, rare-element batteries.

Electra vice-president and general manager J.P. Steward remarked: “Electra was founded to build electric aircraft that make sense. We are meeting market demand for cleaner, cost-effective aircraft that can fly people and cargo closer to where they want to go, and this technology demonstrator aircraft will prove that our eSTOL technology makes that possible.”

Currently, Electra holds Letters Of Intent (LOIs) for more than 1,200 of its nine-passenger production eSTOL aircraft from commercial customers intent upon lowering their respective operating costs, noise profiles, carbon emissions, and ground infrastructural requirements. Collectively, the LOIs represent upwards of $4-billion in sales.

On 26 January 2023, Electra announced it had been selected by the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX innovation arm to develop a full-scale, pre-production, prototype electric Short Takeoff and Landing (eSTOL) aircraft. Funding for the project will be provided by a Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) award that will secure up to $85-million of mixed private investment, government funding, and matching Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) monies.

FMI: www.electra.aero