Electra completes first urban demo flight

Although Electra’s EL2 completed the flight, the firm’s flagship EL9 nine-passenger aircraft will serve as a regional shuttle to fill the regional mobility gap. 

Electra has successful completed the first urban demonstration of its ultra short takeoff and landing EL2 demonstrator aircraft at the Columbus Street Terminal in Charleston, US.

Hosted by South Carolina Port Authority during the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas, Electra said the flight highlights how it’s hybrid-electric propulsion and blown-lift technology enable takeoffs and landings in 150ft or less. Electra said this opens up new places for air services to operate, it calls Ultra Short Access Points, like parking lots, rooftops, fields and barges.

“This demonstration is about showing what’s possible in the real world for urban/suburban airspace access,” said Marc Allen, CEO of Electra. “When you can offer air services close to where people live, work and play, that opens the door to transformative options for regional mobility.  It is new way to travel that’s more direct, flexible, and much easier to use.” 

Electra is calling new approach Direct Aviation—a model that targets the more than 35m daily trips that fall between driving and flying on routes where travellers can save hours by going direct without the usual friction of commercial air travel. It’s designed for a wide range of travellers, from business professionals looking to save hours in a day, to families trying to make the most of a weekend getaway, or anyone who wants to stay connected without turning a short trip into an all-day journey.

The Charleston demonstration builds on Electra’s recent release of the first-ever Direct Aviation Market Outlook, a nationwide analysis of US travel patterns that quantifies the scale of regional mobility demand and outlines how Electra will reshape it.

Among routes with at least 1,000 travellers per day, the analysis identifies:

• 1,851 routes with more than one hour of potential time savings

• 540 routes with more than two hours of potential time savings

• 227 routes with more than three hours of potential time savings

Earlier this year, Electra was selected as an inaugural participant in the US Department of Transportation’s Advanced Air Mobility pilot operations programme, which is accelerating the safe deployment of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft. As part of that, Electra is working with public and private partners on demonstrations including connecting urban and regional destinations in Florida and linking metropolitan centres in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It also supported the submission from the State of Louisiana.