May 15—COLONIE — The future of flight was shown off Tuesday at Albany International Airport.
BETA Technologies of South Burlington, Vt., which has raised nearly $1 billion in capital to manufacture battery-powered airplanes, demonstrated its ALIA CTOL, a small, fixed wing plane that flies 126 mph, to local officials. BETA also has a second prototype called the ALIA VTO that looks more like a helicopter and takes off and lands vertically.
BETA Technologies isn't making airplanes for commercial passenger travel just yet. Rather, its small aircraft prototypes, which can carry up to five passengers and have a wingspan of just 50 feet, are designed for short trips to carry critical cargo or for medical emergencies when a helicopter or ambulance might typically be used. They could be used for short-distance passenger flights as well. Right now, they are being flight-tested until they are ready for commercial flight.
BETA's chief operating officer, Blain Newton, said electric airplanes are not just climate-friendly since they burn no jet fuel, but are also cheaper to operate than jet-fueled airplanes. He also offered that they are more reliable and safer due to fewer moving parts that have to be maintained. Another plus, he said, was that they make flight cheaper than other transport modes because the cost of charging the batteries for a typical trip might be $17. The same trip taken in a jet would cost $750 in fuel alone. The typical range of the plane right now is 2 hours although they have been flown up to 4 hours.
Newton noted that a flight in one of BETA's planes from Albany to Syracuse or Albany to White Plains is cheaper than driving by car in terms of fuel costs. He said rural medical appointments, critical cargo transport, medical transport and other short trips that need to be fast and cheap are perfect uses for the plane.
"You essentially render the fuel costs irrelevant," said Newton, who grew up north of Syracuse wanting to be a jet fighter and flew from an early age. "It just opens up new forms of travel that weren't previously available."
BETA was awarded a $20 million grant from New York state last December through Empire State Development, the state's economic development arm. The money will help pay for a $41 million manufacturing and test flight hub at Plattsburgh International Airport. BETA has committed to creating 85 jobs under the terms of the grant.
BETA is also installing electric airplane charging stations at regional airports. It has installed 20 so far and has 55 more in development up and down the East Coast. They are being installed at regional airports. There are three in New York state.
Although BETA's planes are operating under an experimental license, the company has many pre-orders for the aircraft from the U.S. military, United Therapeutics, UPS and Blade, the company that provides private helicopter and jet service in and out of cities to executives and others seeking to avoid highway traffic.
Capital Region business and civic leaders gathered Tuesday morning to watch the BETA plane do a flyover at Albany International. The first thing people noticed was how quiet the airplane is. Jets and commercial airliners that passed by during the demonstration made it impossible to hear the speakers at the event, but the ALIA CTOL was extremely quiet.
Kevin Younis, executive deputy commissioner of Empire State Development, was at the event. He compared the sound of the electric plane flying to the sound of a window fan like the one he uses to keep his bedroom in his downtown Albany apartment cool and drown out the noise of helicopters landing at Albany Medical Center.
"It sounded a lot like that box fan I have in my window," Younis told the gathered crowd. "Really cool stuff and really fun to see."
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