Small aircraft manufacturer BETA Technologies has rolled the first electric plane off its fully scaled production line in Vermont. You can go along for the ride with this milestone-setting aircraft in a slick new video from the makers.
In the crowded space of electric aircraft, BETA Technologies has truly risen to the top. As early as May of 2021, the SMG consulting firm ranked BETA second in its list of manufacturers most likely to bring an electric plane to market.
It seems that the prediction was well thought out as the company has just announced that its production facility is fully certified and operational in the US state of Vermont. That facility opened in October 2023 and has the capacity to produce up to 300 aircraft per year. According to BETA, the facility represents the "first scaled manufacturing facility for electric aircraft in the United States."
"Within a year, BETA has gone from a certificate of occupancy on its 200,000 square foot (18,580 square meter) manufacturing facility in South Burlington, Vermont, to fully installed tooling, an organized supply chain, and manufactured propulsion systems – to rolling an aircraft off its production line, getting a certificate of airworthiness by the FAA, and flying it," says the company in the comments accompanying the following just-released video.
The plane featured here is the company's Alia CX300 CTOL, which takes off with a traditional trip down the runway. That differs from BETA's A250 VTOL, which can take off vertically, like a helicopter, and aced its transition to cruise test earlier this year, in which it was able to switch from hovering to flying straight ahead.
The CX300 is basically a fixed-wing version of the VTOL model and last year, BETA announced that it had racked up over 22,000 flight hours on its way to certification, which it is hoping to receive in 2025. In advance of that, the Federal Aviation Administration did inspect the plane prior to its most recent flight and granted it an airworthiness certificate for experimental research, according to Flight Global.
The announcement regarding the production line CX300's flight comes just weeks after BETA Technologies announced that it had raised US$318 million in a Series C equity capital round, demonstrating that its momentum shows no signs of slowing.
“This investment validates progress and milestones toward commercializing electric aviation,” said Kyle Clark, BETA’s Founder and CEO and the man who took the production-line plane for its inaugural flight. “For years, we’ve flown across the country and deployed with partners to prove the safety and reliability of our aircraft and chargers. Now, we’re beginning to produce products for our customers. This continued belief and trust in this team and our vision will be good for the investors and good for the world. We are grateful for their shared vision.”
Source: BETA Technologies
