FLYING Magazine
Hybrid-electric regional aircraft manufacturer Electra said its fixed-wing demonstrator aircraft has begun operating using locations intended for helicopters as well as “helicopter-style” instrument procedures.
Electra on Tuesday said it conducted the “first-of-its-kind flights” from a heliport on a commercial airport ramp at Virginia’s Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (KROA). The company said the flights will help create a “national blueprint for [advanced air mobility] instrument flight networks” using helicopter-style procedures and lay the groundwork for operations of its flagship EL9 Ultra Short, which like its two-seat demonstrator is designed with a 150-foot ground roll.
Electra CEO Marc Allen said the recent campaign “provides a glimpse into the future of flight.”
“We showed that fixed-wing, Ultra Short aircraft can use vertical flight landing areas and a new generation of instrument procedures to reach places conventional airplanes were never designed to access,” Allen said in a statement. “This will both bring air service closer to the passenger and also expand capacity at commercial airports in completely non-congestive ways.”
The EL9 is “designed for helicopter-like access with the benefits of fixed-wing flight,” as Electra put it Tuesday. Its key differentiator is blown-lift aerodynamics that allow its propulsion system to enable takeoffs at speeds around 30 knots. The model is intended for a pilot to fly up to nine passengers plus 50 pounds of luggage each, or about 3,000 pounds of cargo, cruising at 175 KTAS. It is designed for an 1,100 nm ferry range with 45 minutes of reserves.
According to the company’s website, a fly-by-wire system manipulates the aircraft’s flight control surfaces and eight electric motors and “automatically manages the complexity of operating in the slow-speed flight envelope.”
Electra said recent activities with its two-seat EL2 demonstrator were part of one of the eight projects under the FAA’s eVTOL and AAM Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), conducted in partnership with Virginia Tech University and the transportation departments of Virginia (VDOT) and Pennsylvania (PennDOT). PennDOT is leading the project. In August, the EL2 began eIPP operations, data from which will be shared with the FAA, with a flight into Washington Manassas Airport (KHEF) in Virginia.
How It Worked
In addition to conducting eIPP activities, Electra is partnered with Virginia’s Smart Airspace Program, which it said in February aims to design and test a scalable, low-cost instrument flight rules (IFR) network for the EL9 and other AAM aircraft. The network would use GPS navigation and new, FAA-certified “access points.”
Electra believes existing IFR arrival and departure procedures were not designed with these aircraft in mind. The company said in February that the Smart Airspace Program would separate AAM and conventional traffic and collect data on trial operations. Operational data will “inform future evaluation of fixed-wing AAM operations using helicopter-style instrument procedures,” it said Tuesday.
Electra said the recent activities tested “point-in-space procedures and dedicated instrument routings” at Virginia airports, including KROA, Virginia Tech/Montgomery Regional Airport (KBCB), and Blackstone Army Airfield Airport (KBKT), as well as sites in Newport News and Richmond. At each location, the EL2 operated using small heliports, vertiports, taxiways, and other sites that are typically only accessible to helicopters without adding traffic to runways, it said.
In the months leading up to the campaign, the partners designed “flexible” approaches, tested novel instrument procedures, and workshopped new air traffic concepts, all with the fixed-wing EL9 in mind.
Parker Vascik, Electra’s director of product strategy, called it a “first step toward developing guidelines and procedures for Ultra Short operations at major airports and novel access points.”
Access points are the foundation of Electra’s direct aviation philosophy, which entails bringing air service to locations that are smaller and closer to where people live and work than traditional airports. They would take advantage of the EL9’s 150-foot ground roll and low noise output, which the company estimates at 75 dBA during takeoff and landing.
EL9 access points could include general aviation airports as well as rooftops, parking lots, fields, barges, malls, casinos, or even ski resorts.
Earlier in September, Electra signed an airframe agreement with Atlas that will see the latter manufacture and assemble EL9 airframes for the former’s flight test and certification program. Deliveries are first expected in 2027.