Former senior Boeing executive Marc Allen has joined Electra Aero as its CEO at what he said is “a significant inflection point” as it prepares to accelerate work on its planned nine-passenger hybrid-electric STOL aircraft. At its Virginia headquarters, the company is expected to reveal the full-scale design and its name at an event in November. It incorporates lessons learned from extensive flight testing of the two-seat EL-2 Goldfinch technology demonstrator.
“This is an exciting moment as we move from a high-rate flight test program of the two-seat demonstrator to the nine-seat aircraft, and it will require a significant commitment of resources and getting the transition right,” Allen told AIN. “The demonstrator has confirmed that the concept translates into a deliverable [product] and we are now starting an intense design phase to get into production in 2028 or 2029.”
According to Electra, it has started to receive deposits from prospective customers who have signed letters of intent for more than 2,000 examples of the aircraft. As spending on development work increases, it is also generating operating cash flow from various U.S. government contracts and investors.
By way of a secret sauce to set itself apart from eVTOL and fixed-wing innovators in the advanced air mobility space, Electra’s unnamed aircraft is expected to be able to operate from landing spaces of no more than 300 feet. The company has chosen to define this performance as “ultra short” to distinguish it from existing short takeoff and landing capabilities, for which aircraft generally need to be able to clear a 50-foot obstacle with 1,500 feet of runway.
Direct Aviation Gets Closer
According to Allen, this performance will deliver transformation in a variety of civil and military applications that Electra collectively defines as “direct aviation” to set it apart from both general/business aviation and mainstream air transport. The company is addressing three core target markets: operations from existing airports, defense missions, and air services connecting new locations without existing aviation infrastructure.
“In the first category, we are working with customers who have operations at airports that are in danger of being closed down due to noise,” Allen explained. “We can demonstrate [noise levels of] 44 dBA flying overhead at 500 feet.” Electra believes its aircraft could regenerate both passenger and freight use cases at airports endangered by public opposition and under-utilization.
Beyond existing sites, Electra has said its nine-seater will be able to fly much closer to where passengers want to begin and end their journeys. “This is where the full promise of direct aviation creates a new basis for operations because our ultra-short aircraft will operate at around one-third of the cost of helicopters or eVTOL aircraft,” Allen said.
On this basis, Electra believes a wide array of short flights becomes more viable. According to the company, 42% of all current operations with Cessna Caravan single turboprops are flown on routes of less than 75 nm, and it believes its hybrid-electric model will deliver fuel cost savings of 40% compared to these ubiquitous aircraft.
Electra is also engaged with the U.S. Department of Defense as part of its efforts to find new ways to transport personnel and materiel with great flexibility and safety. Allen said the Goldfinch demonstrator had recently flown at just 22 knots with a 40-degree angle of attack with no buffer. The company believes this supports the case for the production aircraft to be deployed for ship-based operations, replacing helicopters in some cases, while offering a speed of up to 175 knots.
Flight Demonstrations For U.S. Marines and Army
On September 23, Electra announced that it recently completed flight demonstrations with the Goldfinch demonstrator at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Facility at Quantico and at the Felker Army Airfield at the Joint Base Langley-Eustis. The exercises were intended to demonstrate dual-use capabilities for logistics operations in austere environments with no runways.
Electra’s chief test pilot, Cody Allee, flew a tight 150-foot radius to demonstrate the aircraft’s low-altitude, low-speed maneuverability. The company also showed how the aircraft’s powertrain can serve for mobile power generation. It said the production aircraft will be able to deliver over 600 kilowatts of continuous power and more than 1 megawatt for short bursts in a way that could be valuable for multiple military missions, such as tactical insertion of troops or medical evacuations.
The company, founded by veteran aviation innovator John Langford, isn’t going it alone. Electra is backed by A-list strategic investors and partners, including Lockheed Martin, Honeywell Aerospace, and Safran, which is providing the turbogenerator for its propulsion system.
Allen, who described Electra chairman Langford as “the Frank Lloyd Wright of aircraft design,” left Boeing as the aerospace giant’s chief strategy officer and senior vice president for strategy and corporate development. During a long career with Boeing, he also served as president of Boeing International and as chairman of its Wisk Aero subsidiary, which is developing a fully autonomous eVTOL aircraft.
“Our [Electra] aircraft is designed to fit seamlessly into the existing regulatory environment and we can certify it as a traditional fixed-wing design, which is much easier,” said Allen. “It’s technology innovation but the path to it is straight and level.”