BetaTechnologies Alia250

www.businessinsider.com

Air New Zealand and 2 others have placed orders for a new electric 5-seater plane that can fly up to 386 miles — meet Beta's CX300

The CX300 has already undergone years-long testing, and on a single charge it flew a whopping 386 miles.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com

verticalmag.com

Beta Technologies expands electric aircraft fleet with new eCTOL

Beta Technologies has announced plans to add a second electric aircraft to its fleet — a fixed-wing CX300 eCTOL that the company plans to design and test in parallel with its Alia-250 eVTOL aircraft.
verticalmag.com verticalmag.com

"The newly announced aircraft has garnered interest from new and existing customers for medical transport, cargo delivery, and future passenger services. This includes Air New Zealand, which intends to order three eCTOLs with an option for 20 more."

I wonder what routes Air New Zealand could find this aircraft suitable for ? Sightseeing flights ?
 
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Sounds like Beta is putting their eVTOL plans on the backburner.
 
More like seizing an opportunity. Having demonstrated the platform can do reasonably effective distances, someone likely asked the logical question of why wait on the VTOL effort? I suspect that they will continue to work on the eVTOL, but a positive cash flow makes investors happy.
 
But why should you buy such a cumbersome and compromised design with no real operational advantages and, in all certainties, a high price tag?
 
Here is my own awnser:

thedriven.io

"This thing is amazing:" Flying school uses electric plane for pilot training

Korum Ellis is on a mission to put "bums in seats" of electric planes so pilots can experience how much better they are than fossil fuelled aircraft.
thedriven.io thedriven.io

I did not fly the thing personally (however some Pipistrel design), but I have seen it operating from a very rough short field and it... Works (guy did scenary flight in Hungary).
Very fragile, very light, probably not comfortable with a pilot on your side reaching, I guess, well over 40, but, cheap, on time and with good performances.

So, I don't know what Beta is expecting here. Even fried chickens don't fly.
 
www.dvidshub.net

All-Electric Fixed-Wing Offloads Cargo at JB MDL

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, NJ - Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst played a vital role in a historic first cargo flight as part of a demonstration of the ALIA CTOL battery-powered fixed-wing aircraft, July 9, 2024. The National Aviation Recreation Parks and Technology in Atlantic City...
www.dvidshub.net www.dvidshub.net
 
Unmanned cargo operations are great but look at the anaemic payload for such a big aircraft. Can it even bring-in a replacement battery in case one aircraft is stuck?
How did they say back then? Errare Humanum and bladibladabla...
 
I feel that the military knows these aircraft are pretty useless for them but are trying to keep a few of these companies alive with these contracts long enough for the technology to mature and hopefully become a commercial success. Sort of like a subsidy without admitting it's a subsidy, which is fine by me. Many aerospace projects in the past have gotten off the ground with govt assistance.
 
I'm not sure why anyone would go with a company named BetaTechnologies - is it supposed to be better that oh say AlphaTechnologies, like because it is beta than alpha?
 
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Likely there is a strategic decision to maintain these smaller aerospace companies as nurseries of aerospace engineers and other high tech aviation capabilities. Since aerospace has been the gestational venue for a significant number of technologies that have crossed over to other uses, it seems a rational return on investment to me.
Besides, the gentrification of the mainstream aerospace companies with risk aversion fueled by nervous investors and bureaucrats alike, almost make this a necessity.
 

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