While alien-looking eVTOL aircraft headlines, Electra's slightly more conventional approach beats pre-sales from Joby, Archer, Lilium and Vertical Aerospace. Indeed, we highlighted in January that this company's pre-order book already represented more than eight times Cessna's annual turnover. The industry therefore certainly seems to believe in this project.
THE nine-seater Electra plane itself appears reasonably normal at first glance, but there are enough deviations from a standard cell to make remarkable promises.
The eight small-diameter, five-blade propellers along its wing run on quiet electric motors, powered by a lithium battery large enough to enable fully electric takeoff and landing, as well as quiet flight over areas populated that you will have difficulty hearing. traffic; Electra promises just 75 decibels at a distance of 300 feet (91 m), making it quite airplane friendly.
A range-extending generator prevents it from operating completely cleanly on longer flights – but in reality it allow longer flights, which all-electric planes simply won't be able to match until the next advance in battery technology. Electra promises cruising speeds of around 200 mph (322 km/h) and a range of around 500 miles (805 km) in addition to a 45-minute reserve.
The efficient hybrid system should reduce fuel consumption by up to 40% over a 100-mile flight – although we imagine that figure will drop significantly on longer flights where the generator spends more time operating.
![Eight small props force airflow over the wings, generating excessive lift at low speeds](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/5909560/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1366x911+0+0/resize/1366x911!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff3%2F59%2F960c8453450f95efb2968f843cff%2Fscreenshot-2024-05-31-at-1.57.29%E2%80%AFPM.png)
Electra Aero
But the fun part is how these little props focus airflow over the wings, creating a blown lift scenario that allows operators to take off and land on landing strips the size of a football field measuring 300 x 100 feet (91 x 30 m). . That's pretty wild for a nine-seat vehicle.
And you definitely won't need all those 300 feet. Electra has now conducted its first STOL operation at Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia, using its EL-2 Goldfinch demonstration aircraft – and it needed just over half that length. Check it out:
Electra First flight eSTOL May 2024
“During the campaign,” a statement read, “the aircraft took off at less than 170 feet (52 m) and landed at less than 114 feet (35 m) of ground travel., the plane reached an altitude of 6,500 feet (1,980 m) and flew as slowly as 25 knots (29 mph/46 km/h) during takeoff and landing.
“Today's milestone is an incredible achievement, as we have proven that our eSTOL aircraft has the capability to do what we said it could do: operate from spaces less than 300 feet,” said JP Stewart, vice president and general manager of Electra. Handling of the aircraft at low speeds was exceptional and matches well with our analysis, reinforcing confidence in the intended capability of the nine-passenger product design. We will continue to develop our technologies, including “push-by-wire” flight control. system to allow us to fly even slower on approach and further improve STOL takeoff and landing performance as part of the current test campaign.
The company is seeking commercial certification from the FAA under the Part 23 regulation and expects a production aircraft to enter commercial service in 2028. Very cool!
Source: Electra