Blade Air Mobility and BETA Technologies have completed a test flight of BETA’s ALIA-250 eVTOL at the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York.
“This is a historic moment for Blade, New York and the urban air mobility industry,” said Rob Wiesenthal, Chief Executive Officer of Blade.
“This demonstrates our transition from helicopters to eVTOL aircraft, and BETA has designed the right aircraft with the requisite range, capacity, and noise profile. We are confident eVTOls will be a game-changer both for our company and New York City’s transportation system, once certified by the FAA.”
BETA founder and CEO Kyle Clark continued: “Blade is flying passengers in key urban markets all over the world, and this flight is another step toward delivering our electric aircraft to support those operations.
“We continue to fly real-life missions and gain proficiency in the national airspace, being able to fly here from our flight test facility in Plattsburgh to work with Blade to operationalise our partnership.”
ALIA-250 is powered by an all-electric propulsion system with a noise profile of one tenth of the sound decibel level of conventional helicopters, and can fly up to six people, flying alongside a conventional helicopter before pulling away for a second pass above the airport to highlight the dramatic noise reduction.
In April 2021, Blade agreed to purchase up to 20 ALIA-250 aircraft to deploy on routes between its network of dedicated terminals in the US. BETA has also agreed to install charging infrastructure at certain key locations.
Over the past three years, BETA accomplished significant milestones toward certification, with test pilots from the US Air Force and Army flying the ALIA-250 in full-pattern evaluations in March 2022 and July 2022.
BETA has also partnered with the FAA and the National Institute for Aviation Research to conduct the first-ever 50-foot drop tests of its full-scale battery packs, successfully completing the test and advancing the industry’s path to safety standards and certification.