eCTOL Aircraft Debuts after Rolling Off New Virginia Production Line

Beta Technologies recently sent the first production-representative Alia CX300 up for its debut flight. The electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) aircraft is the first to come off the manufacturer’s new production line in South Burlington, Vermont.

The aircraft, N916LF, was flown by Beta founder and CEO Kyle Clark. He took the CX300 up to around 7,000 feet to complete “handling qualities evaluation, stability and control test points and initial airspeed expansion prior to flying several approaches and a normal landing,” Beta stated. The sortie lasted around an hour in total.

This inaugural flight kicks off Beta’s production aircraft test campaign. It will complete 50 more hours on an experimental certificate before conducting a market survey and crew training. The manufacturer will then be well on its way to start deliveries.

“This start of our production flight test campaign is a result of years of hard work and focus on studying customer requirements, hard engineering, manufacturing, production, quality and test,” Clark commented. ”It represents a significant milestone for Beta, and is the beginning of an exciting new phase for the business."

The CX300 is the conventional takeoff version of Beta’s Alia design. It has a five-passenger capacity and utilizes an electric H500A motor, giving the aircraft a 135 kt cruise speed and a 336 nm range. The CX300 is expected to receive FAA type certification by 2025 and already has commitments from Air New Zealand, Bristow Group, and United Therapeutics.

Shortly after the CX300 hits the market, Beta plans to launch a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) variant. This aircraft, the A250, utilizes four V600A electric lift motors as well as the H500A.

“We learned a lot from this first production build,” Clark continued. “We weren’t just building an aircraft company, we were building and refining a system to build high quality aircraft efficiently. This first build allowed the team to collect data and insight on manufacturing labor, tooling design, processes, yields and sequences, all of which are being used to refine our production systems.”

FMI: www.beta.team