French ERA Finds Fans in the Intermountain West

French manufacturer Aura Aero signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Alpine Air Express, a regional freight carrier based out of Provo, Utah.

The carrier says it operates more than 100 flights a day across the USA for clientele like UPS, Amazon, and the Postal Service, taking on the task of "last mile delivery". Their fleet stands at just over 80 aircraft, and Aura Aero's promise of an affordable, sustainable hybrid-powered regional prop plane cuts an attractive figure for their operations. As such, Alpine Air Express inked a new letter of intent for up to 75 of the ERA (Electric Regional Aircraft), building on their 2023 Memorandum with a more codified plan to purchase some equipment. Before, their MOU only went as far as outlining the support in areas of ERA certification stateside, operations, customer support, and the development of a floorplan for Alpine's future aircraft.

Aura Aero's been hard at work on developing the ERA, to the point of establishing a base of operations in the Embry-Riddle Research Campus. If all goes well they plan to have the ERA enter service before 2030. It promises to hold 1.9 tons of freight when in cargo mode, or carry up to 19 passengers in its most seating-dense arrangement. In operations, the ERA will take off on pure battery power, using (hopefully) cheap battery power from the grid before drawing upon its own built-in power generating, fuel burning equipment. The ERA is expected to cut "maintenance and energy costs by more than 50% per ton of revenue cargo, when compared to older aircraft of the same category."

“Competitive advantages of ERA as a cargo aircraft with respect to traditional turboprops, include lower operating costs, optimized payload capacity for typical short haul freight and increased safety through state-of-the-art avionics and flight controls“, said Drew McEwen, Chief Commercial Officer Aura Aero. The company notes that their current order book has more than 570 planes spoken for, with a value of up to $9 billion across the fleet.

“Some aircraft serving the regional cargo markets are expensive to maintain," added Alpine Air Express CEO, Michael Dancy. "Alpine is excited to utilize this next generation technology to provide long term cost controls for its customers.”

FMI: www.aura-aero.com