{"id":18407,"date":"2021-05-11T13:22:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T13:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=18407"},"modified":"2021-05-11T14:14:11","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T14:14:11","slug":"beta-completes-airworthiness-first-to-fly-manned-electric-vertical-aircraft-for-u-s-air-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/vermont\/beta-completes-airworthiness-first-to-fly-manned-electric-vertical-aircraft-for-u-s-air-force\/%20","title":{"rendered":"BETA Completes Airworthiness, First to Fly Manned Electric Vertical Aircraft for U.S. Air Force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BETA Technologies has been awarded the first airworthiness\napproval for a manned electric aircraft by the United States Air Force Agility\nPrime Program. ALIA, the Company\u2019s Electric Vertical Aircraft (EVA), has begun\nflying under the Air Force operational flight test program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) spent over a year assessing BETA\u2019s\nALIA aircraft, conducting deep dives into engineering, operations and flight\ntest capabilities against the demanding military 516c standard. USAF subject\nmatter experts evaluated every aspect of ALIA for safety, design, and\nmaintenance standards, as well as participated in the flight test campaign\nplanning. Under this contract, the USAF will have access to the only manned,\n7,000 pound class all electric aircraft known to be flying in the world today.\nWith this kind of open access and evaluation of operational test results, Air\nForce acquisition officials will be able to make data driven procurement\ndecisions to best meet the military\u2019s technical needs and will be informed by\nreal assessments of military utility in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAchieving the first manned airworthiness authorization in\nthe Agility Prime program is a key milestone. This not only unlocks the\nopportunity to begin Air Force directed manned flight tests, but it also shows\nthe high level of maturity of this technology and the high level of maturity of\nAgility Prime partner companies like BETA,\u201d said Col. Nathan Diller, the\nDirector of AFWERX at the United States Air Force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElectric aviation is a National Security priority and\nfortunately this was recognized early by the Air Force.  The speed and efficiency of the Air Force\nAgility Prime program to support sustainable electric aviation has been\nremarkable,\u201d said Kyle Clark, BETA\u2019s Founder and CEO. \u201cThe people and expertise\nthat the Air Force has brought to the electric aviation industry and\nspecifically our ALIA program is accelerating the development of incredibly\ncapable, safe and reliable aircraft.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In addition to field and real-life applications in the\naircraft flight test program, BETA\u2019s flight simulation and training facilities\nallow Air Force pilots and engineers to experience the future of EVA by\nrehearsing and testing the ALIA aircraft in a variety of potential mission sets\nand scenarios. The advanced urban air mobility technology simulator near the\nAir Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Springfield, Ohio, provides easy access\nto the Air Force\u2019s technical acquisition workforce, while the Washington, D.C.\ntest facility provides an ideal venue to immerse senior leaders and decision\nmakers in the electrified future. These state-of-the-art simulators are physics\nbased and include weather, emergency handling, battle damage, and advanced\nmission scenario simulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agility Prime is a wholly unique government acquisition\neffort, designed to leverage and accelerate commercial innovation efforts. In a\nfirst of its kind arrangement, AFRL engineers used unique equipment and\nanalysis capabilities to conduct Ground Vibration Testing (GVT), a method of\ndynamic structural analysis on the ALIA aircraft. This valuable data provided\nby the GVT will be used to safely advance the flight test program safely while\nproviding valuable insight to the USAF on novel aircraft design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, BETA advanced to the next phase of its\nflight-testing program, completing an interstate flight with ALIA from its\nPlattsburgh, N.Y. home airport test facility to the Company\u2019s headquarters on\nthe grounds of Burlington International Airport in South Burlington, VT. In\naccordance with FAA protocols regarding the ability of experimental aircraft to\nfly beyond a designated test area, BETA had to complete comprehensive testing\nto ensure reliable and predictable aircraft handling and performance. In the\nsame week ALIA flew its first interstate flight, the aircraft set a new BETA record\nfor endurance, range, and altitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BETA will continue testing aircraft capabilities and mission\napplicability including range, altitude, endurance and payload limits before\ntesting specific cargo, logistic and other missions. The quiet electric\npropulsion has a very low thermal and acoustic signature, enabling the aircraft\nto complement existing ground and air vehicles with new capabilities. Cost,\nmaintainability and availability will be tracked and evaluated during\noperational test and evaluation. All of these benefits come with zero operational\nemissions, an important part of the Armed Forces sustainability goals.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, BETA added to its growing customer list securing\nagreements with BLADE and UPS for its ALIA aircraft and charging stations. BETA\npartners now span medical, logistics, defense and passenger segments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BETA Technologies has been awarded the first airworthiness approval for a manned electric aircraft by the United States Air Force Agility Prime Program. ALIA, the Company\u2019s Electric Vertical Aircraft (EVA), has begun flying under the Air Force operational flight test program. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) spent over a year assessing BETA\u2019s ALIA aircraft, conducting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-vermont"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20210107-BetaTestFlight-DSC01453edit2-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18410,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407\/revisions\/18410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}