Electric planes, once a fantasy, are starting to take to the skies

Chris Caputo stood on the tarmac of Burlington International Airport in Vermont in early October and looked at the clouds in the distance. He had piloted military and commercial aircraft over a long career and logged thousands of hours of flying time, but the journey he was about to take would be very different.

That’s because the plane Mr. Caputo would fly is battery-powered. For the next sixteen days, he and his colleagues flew the plane, a CX300 built by their employer, Beta Technologies, along the East Coast. They would make nearly two dozen stops to rest and recharge as they flew through the busy airspace of Boston, New York, Washington and other cities.

As the Florida trip came to an end, Beta turned the plane over to the Air Force, which will experiment with it in the coming months. The trip offered a vision of what aviation could look like years from now — one in which the sky is filled with planes that don’t emit the greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming the planet.

“We are doing very meaningful work for our state, our country and the planet,” Mr. Caputo said. “It’s hard not to want to be a part of it.”

A flurry of activity

For most of aviation history, electric airplanes have been little more than a fantasy. But technological advances, especially in batteries, and billions of dollars in investment have helped make short-haul electric air travel feasible — and, proponents hope, commercially viable.

Privately held Beta has raised more than $800 million from investors including Fidelity, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and private equity firm TPG Capital. The company employs about 600 people, mostly in Vermont, and recently completed construction of a factory in Burlington, where it plans to mass-produce its aircraft, which have yet to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The first will be the CX300, a sleek, futuristic aircraft with a 50-foot wingspan, large curved windows and a rear propeller. That aircraft is designed to carry about 2,500 pounds of cargo and will be followed shortly thereafter by the A250, which shares about 80 percent of the CX300’s design and is equipped with lift rotors to take off and land like a helicopter. Both planes, which Beta is marketing as the Alia, will eventually carry passengers, the company says.

Beta is one of many companies involved in electric aviation. In California, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation are developing battery-powered aircraft that can perform vertical flights and which they say will carry a handful of passengers over short distances. These companies have backers such as Toyota, Stellantis, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and large investment companies. Established manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing and Embraer are also working on electric aircraft.

The US government has also mobilized behind the industry. By 2028, the FAA aims to support the operations of aircraft using new means of propulsion on a large scale in one or more locations by 2028. And the Air Force is awarding contracts and test vehicles, including Beta’s CX300 and an aircraft Joby delivered to Edwards Air Force Base in California in September.

‘Almost one by plane’

Beta’s plane is not as big and powerful as the jets Mr. Caputo flew for the Air Force, Air National Guard or Delta. But what it lacks in weight it makes up for in charm, he said, noting that the plane is incredibly quiet and responsive, making it a pleasure to fly.

“You’re almost one with the plane,” Mr. Caputo said, later adding, “You can kind of hear and feel the air going over the control surfaces. We wear helmets now because it’s experimental and safety is paramount, but we can literally take the helmets off on the plane and just talk to each other.”

Mr. Caputo said the CX300 and other electric planes could open up new opportunities, such as better connecting rural areas that have little or no direct air service.

Beta’s plane has flown as far as 386 miles on a single charge, but the company expects its customers will typically use it for trips of 100 to 150 miles. The plane’s travel to Florida was permitted under limited FAA authorization

Electric aircraft not only produce no emissions, but are also designed to be easier to operate and maintain than conventional helicopters and airplanes. But it is not expected that they will take to the air in large numbers in the coming years. Initially, their trips will likely be short, such as from Manhattan to Kennedy International Airport, or from Burlington to Syracuse, NY

Modern batteries can support limited range and weight. As a result, the aircraft they power can generally only carry a handful of passengers, or the equivalent load of cargo.

In the early stages, electric aircraft are expected to compete mainly with helicopters, cars and trucks. In cities, widespread flights will not be possible without extensive infrastructure such as vertical landing and take-off locations and public support. The cost of producing such planes will also be high initially, limiting their use to the wealthy and to critical services such as medical evacuations, experts say.

In some ways, the challenge and promise of electric aviation today are similar to those of the automobile at the turn of the 20th century, says Kevin Michaels, president of AeroDynamic Advisory, an aviation consulting firm.

“You had hundreds of manufacturers around the world, all with their own unique approaches to making these machines, but you had no roads, you had no traffic lights, you had no insurance,” he said. But, he added, the industry eventually found its way. “Twenty years later, things settled down, and eventually costs came down and winners emerged. And it changed the way things were done, the way people lived.”

Aimed at gaining trust

Kyle Clark, Beta’s founder, is aware of these concerns, which is why he says Beta has taken a more methodical approach.

“I understand, the industry has a trust problem,” he said. “It’s too much change, too fast, in a sector with an exceptionally high level of safety.”

The company plans to first obtain FAA certification next year for an engine it developed, followed by approvals of its first and second aircraft in subsequent years. The CX300 will use runways to move cargo, avoiding the need for new infrastructure, Mr. Clark said.

This approach, according to Beta, has been endorsed by several customers, including transportation giant UPS and United Therapeutics, who plan to use the vehicles to transport organs for transplant. Bristow Group, another customer, plans to use the aircraft as it uses helicopters today, to transport goods and people to offshore energy facilities, conduct search and rescue missions for governments and for other purposes.

Bristow, which is working with eight companies developing next-generation aircraft, expects the vehicles to create new opportunities because they are quieter than helicopters and are expected to be 60 to 70 percent cheaper to operate, said David Stepanek, executive vice president at Bristow.

In addition to building aircraft, Beta is setting up a network of chargers that can power planes as well as cars, trucks and other vehicles. More than a dozen have been set up, including one at the Florida Air Force site, making it the the Army’s first electric aircraft charging station.

The company also built a prototype landing pad for aircraft that can fly vertically. This sits atop repurposed shipping containers, where energy is stored and a small living space where pilots can rest between trips.

The day Beta’s plane left Burlington in October, Mr. Caputo flew it on two legs, arriving at sunset at Griffiss International Airport in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, near where he grew up. He ordered Italian food for the Beta team from a restaurant he frequented with his family, and his mother drove out to see the plane in person for the first time. The next morning he flew the plane to Syracuse, New York, and handed it over to colleagues who would fly it the rest of the trip.

Much of the popular discussion about electric planes revolves around the idea that they will be used effectively as flying cars to fly people around big cities. In the near future, however, they could just as easily be used to transport goods and passengers outside of dense urban areas, in places like New York State and Vermont.

“To me, it will have a very meaningful impact on how we move organs, goods and services,” he said, “and how we reconnect the rural parts of America that I think are often forgotten.”