Airlines today are striving to add electric aircraft to their fleet because of the lower fuel consumption and efficient utilization of energy. Recently, it has been revealed that a company named “Beta Technologies” has assembled an electric aircraft having a tendency to fly up to 250 miles with just 50 minutes of charging. It should be worth mentioning that this “Alia-250c” aircraft has completed its eight-day test flight around different states and covered a whopping 2257 km of distance.
This company is newly established and is deploying all environmentally sustainable measures for its upcoming electric aircraft. However, this aircraft contains two electric engines that need charging. The only constraint on the limited production of electric aircraft is that the batteries used for the charging of these aircraft are mainly manufactured for local transport and don’t have the capability to utilize them for lengthy journeys.
But this aircraft is designed to travel long distances. The CEO of Beta, Kyle Clark, said, “I think that with this type of flight… we change the image of what electric aviation is.” It’s not an aircraft that’s hopping within a city… you put a couple of pilots in it, you put some cargo in it, and you go halfway across the country.”
By this, he meant that the company has actually developed two versions of this aircraft. One is for passengers and one is for cargo. The passenger aircraft has a capacity to hold about a total of five passengers and a pilot. On the other hand, around 91 square meters of cargo can be transported easily by aircraft. Clark further stated, “The launching point for Alia is a focus on cargo and logistics flights of up to about 240km.”
The airplane completed the test flight in about eight days as per the specifications. The journey commenced from New York and during this, the aircraft actually made 7 stops for recharging. The average flight time, which was recorded, came out to be about 88 minutes, and the journey came to an end in Bentonville, Arkansas, accumulating a total distance covered of around 2257 miles.
However, for safety purposes, a Cessna Caravan aircraft was flying behind the Alia 250c to ensure the conduction of a smooth flight and to cover any anomalies detected during the flight. The pilots, Camron Guthrie and Lochie Ferrier said that when we were doing some aerobatics during the flight, the public was amazed to see us, and “People just came out to see the folks from Vermont and their spaceship.”
