ALIA-250 Demonstrates … Range

An eVTOL aircraft developed by BETA Technologies has completed a non-stop 117-nautical-mile flight from Georgia’s Augusta Regional Airport (AGS) to the Peach State’s Middle Georgia Regional Airport (MCN) in Macon. The journey, which spanned one-hour, five-minutes, is part of a larger southbound trip the contraption is making to Florida.

Beta Technologies ascribes the flight’s success to charging infrastructure installed by the company, in cooperation with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and Georgia Power, in Augusta. Subject infrastructure facilitated recharging of the aircraft—known as the ALIA-250.

Beta Technologies’s ALIA-250 is a five-occupant (one pilot, four passenger) high-fixed-wing, electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the propulsion scheme of which comprises four non-articulating VTOL rotors and one aft-mounted pusher-rotor. By way of empennage, the ALIA 250 sports a large V-tail evocative of the starship Enterprise’s (NCC-1701) warp pylons. The described twin-tail assembly is supported by angled trusses, dramatically arched wings, and arcing, tapered wingtips. The machine’s undercarriage is of the fixed, quadricycle variety.

All five of the ALIA-250’s rotors are independently powered by discrete, proprietary electric motors, the requisite electrical power for which is supplied by battery cells purchased from outside vendors and customized in house.  

The vehicle’s lift architecture is predicated upon rotor-borne vertical flight, wing-borne forward flight, and a transitional phase between. The seven-thousand-pound (maximum gross weight) aircraft has been ascribed advertised maximum range and level-flight speed figures of 217-nautical-miles and 86.89-knots respectively.

Beta announced in April 2022 that it had raised $375-million in a second round of financing, thereby bringing its total financing to $796-million. The company employs 450 individuals.

FMI: www.beta.team