Beta Technologies Alia
Beta Technologies, founded by entrepreneur Kyle Clark in 2017, is developing the electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) Alia CX300 and the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eCTOL) Alia A250. This was the second aircraft design the company built, after its Ava demonstrator (N802UT) made its first tethered hover flight on May 23, 2018. Ava was a 4,000-lb (1.8-tonne) eVTOL aircraft developed in partnership with United Therapeutics (UT).
Burlington, Vermont-based Beta made the first flight — a tethered hover — of its Alia aircraft with its first demonstrator (N250UT) on Feb. 26, 2020. Alia is a 6,000-lb (2.7-tonne) prototype with a 50-ft (15.2-m) arched wing with dihedral inboard and anhedral outboard. The eVTOL demonstrators featured four two-bladed lifting propellers and a rear-mounted three-bladed variable-pitch pusher propeller for cruise. (The tail number “N250UT” indicated the intended 250 nm [463 km] eVTOL range and the company’s early sponsor and investor, United Therapeutics.)
The first demonstrator was converted to eCTOL testing, with the removal of its lifting propellers, and used extensively for cross-country flights, including demonstrations for the US Air Force, other government agencies and commercial customers.
The first free hover was made by the second demonstrator (N251UT) on May 8, 2022. Extensive testing resulted in modifications to the lifting propellers (adding delta hinges for flapping), allowing the aircraft to fly faster in eVTOL mode. The aircraft made the world’s first crewed electric vertical takeoff, conversion to wingborne flight and vertical landing of a production representative configuration on April 17, 2024.
Beta flew its first production Alia CX300 (N916LF) aircraft on Nov. 13, 2024, which was built at its new production facility in South Burlington, Vermont.
The company raised an additional $318M in Series C equity capital in October, bringing total equity capital raised to more than $1B. The round was led by QIA, with participation from returning investors Fidelity Management & Research and TPG’s Rise Fund; longtime customer United Therapeutics also invested for the first time.
References
· US Air Force Primes the eVTOL Industry, VFS Vertiflite, March/April 2021
· Beta Technologies ALIA-250, VFS Electric VTOL News
· Beta's Alia Makes Historic Transition Flight, VFS Electric VTOL News, April 23, 2024
· How Beta Technologies solved its eVTOL transition problems, The Air Current, April 23, 2024
· BETA Technologies raises more than $300M in additional equity capital to fund growth and commercialization, Beta Technologies press release, Oct. 31, 2024
— Text by Mike Hirschberg
Go back to the previous photo or view the photo for next month
2025 History Calendar Index