BETA Technologies has delivered its ALIA CX300 electric CTOL to the company's first customer. The short-hop passenger aircraft will now be used to evaluate use cases and possible routes for zero-emission operation in the Nordic region.
Unlike its electric vertical take-off and landing counterpart – the A250 – the ALIA CX300 gets in the air and lands using a runway. It's designed to carry five passengers plus a pilot over short distances between airports, and features an electric motor driving a single five-blade prop to its rear. According to the spec sheet, its onboard batteries should be good for more than 300 nautical miles between one-hour top-ups.
A couple of months ago, the aircraft's very first passenger pioneers were flown from Long Island to the John F. Kennedy International Airport, staying in the air for 45 minutes. Now the first ALIA CX300 has been delivered to Bristow Norway AS, a subsidiary of US helicopter operator, the Bristow Group.
The delivery to Stavanger Airport in Western Norway's Rogaland county also marks the end of a weeks-long 6.976-km (4,335 mile) demonstration tour of seven EU countries by the aircraft, which began in Ireland and closed in Norway. It also signals the start of operations for Norway's Test Arena for Zero & Low Emission Aviation.
The first test flight by a BETA-trained Bristow pilot was also undertaken at the launch event, following on-site instruction at BETA's Vermont headquarters recently. Bristow pilots and aircraft maintenance personnel will now undertake further demonstration flights over the next six months, in cooperation with Avinor and the Civil Aviation Authority of Norway, as part of a "six-month regulatory sandbox evaluation project."
These flights will also look into future customer routes in the region, starting with hops between Stavanger and Bergen airports and potentially expanding to more routes later in the year.
"To be delivering ALIA to our partners at Bristow and kicking off operational testing here in Norway is a big moment for BETA," said BETA CRO, Shawn Hall. "Bristow has been with us from the start and shares our drive for progress, and Norway, with its spirit of innovation and modernization, is a perfect place to move this technology forward. Handing off the aircraft to a customer is, in part, a huge milestone, but it's also an important launchpad for all that comes next for the industry."
Source: BETA Technologies
