It has been an intense week for Virginia-based hybrid-electric aircraft startup Electra.
On November 13, 2024, Electra revealed the design of its future EL9 ultra short takeoff and landing hybrid-electric nine-seater aircraft.
The EL9 uses blown lift technology to land on runways as short as 150 feet (45 meters), which would even enable it to land in unconventional spots such as football fields and parking lots.
On top of that, the EL9’s hybrid propulsion system, with four independent battery packs and a small turbine-powered generator, allows for low emission flights over a range of 330 miles (531 kilometers) at full payload.
As part of its pitch, Electra highlights that while it is capable of performing many of the missions that eVTOLs and traditional helicopters are often used for, the fact that the EL9 is a fixed-wing conventional takeoff and landing aircraft significantly lowers the cost and the development risks of the program.
Electra has been testing most of this technology on a smaller scale demonstrator aircraft, the two-seater EL2 Goldfinch, which first flew in November 2023.
The day before presenting the EL9, on November 12, 2024, Electra also announced it had been selected to participate in NASA’s Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability (AACES) 2050 initiative, a project that aims to develop sustainable propulsion technologies for a new generation of airliners.
Electra will play a leading role in this initiative, with its Chief Engineer for Research and Future Concepts, Dr. Alejandra Uranga, coordinating a team which includes prominent firms and research organizations, such as Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, Lockheed Martin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among others.
