A milestone in electric aviation took place Thursday afternoon, when Beta Technologies landed its ALIA eVTOL aircraft at Duke Field, on Eglin Air Force Base, for a deployment period with the U.S. Air Force.

The big picture: During its 2,000-mile, multi-leg journey from Burlington, Vermont to Florida, the plane completed what Beta believes to be the longest electric aviation flight on a single charge, at 386 miles.

  • geekworking@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    1 year ago

    I think that this is more a competitor for helicopter than an airplane.

    A similar capacity airplane has twice the range, but a similar helicopter is in the same ballpark.

    • PeachMan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Helicopter flights are a whole different category. They’re stupid expensive, and really only necessary if you don’t have a landing strip (or if you’re disgustingly rich).

      I could see electric planes easily replacing short flights between small cities and the nearest major hub. Jet fuel ain’t cheap, and theoretically these electric planes could be very cost effective. For long flights, I expect we won’t see electric planes for quite a long time.

      • Taringano@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        If it’s a VTOL it whoudl also vertically take off and land,and replace helicopters.

        • PeachMan@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, and they’d also crash and kill people with some regularity. VTOLs tend to do that. 😂