BETA Completes 14 Electric Aircraft Flights Under Florida eIPP Programme

BETA Tech­nolo­gies has com­plet­ed 14 flights across Flori­da with its ALIA CTOL elec­tric air­craft, cov­er­ing near­ly 700 nau­ti­cal miles as part of the US Depart­ment of Transportation’s (DOT) and Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Administration’s (FAA) eVTOL Inte­gra­tion Pilot Pro­gram (eIPP).

The com­pa­ny is par­tic­i­pat­ing in Florida’s eIPP project, led by the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (FDOT), along­side Repub­lic Air­ways, Brick­yard Con­nec­tion and Metro Avi­a­tion. The flights took place in the Orlan­do and Tam­pa regions, includ­ing ser­vices between St. Pete-Clear­wa­ter Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, Albert Whit­ted Air­port in St Peters­burg and Tam­pa Inter­na­tion­al Air­port.

The air­craft also flew between Albert Whit­ted Air­port and Tam­pa Inter­na­tion­al, retrac­ing the route of the world’s first sched­uled com­mer­cial air­line flight, oper­at­ed by Tony Jan­nus in 1914.

Although the eIPP is focused on inte­grat­ing elec­tric ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing (eVTOL) and advanced air mobil­i­ty tech­nolo­gies, BETA’s ALIA CTOL is a con­ven­tion­al take-off and land­ing air­craft. The pro­gramme is intend­ed to give reg­u­la­tors and indus­try part­ners expe­ri­ence of elec­tric air­craft oper­at­ing in real-world con­di­tions with­in the US Nation­al Air­space Sys­tem.

BETA said the flights would con­tribute oper­a­tional data to sup­port the devel­op­ment of pro­ce­dures and require­ments for future com­mer­cial elec­tric air­craft oper­a­tions. The com­pa­ny is par­tic­i­pat­ing in sev­en of the eight eIPP projects select­ed nation­wide.

Infra­struc­ture is a sig­nif­i­cant part of BETA’s Flori­da activ­i­ties. The com­pa­ny has estab­lished a charg­ing net­work at nine loca­tions across the state, from the Pan­han­dle to the Space Coast. Sites include Tam­pa Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, Tal­la­has­see Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, Gainesville Region­al Air­port and the Sun­Trax Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Facil­i­ty.

Ear­li­er in 2026, BETA signed an agree­ment with FDOT to sup­ply 34 charg­ers and ther­mal man­age­ment sys­tems. The com­pa­ny said its charg­ing equip­ment uses the Com­bined Charg­ing Sys­tem (CCS) stan­dard and can sup­port oth­er com­pat­i­ble elec­tric vehi­cles as well as air­craft.

BETA also report­ed that ear­li­er oper­a­tions with Repub­lic Air­ways along Florida’s Inter­state 4 cor­ri­dor had achieved up to nine flights per day, with ener­gy costs below $17 per flight. These fig­ures were pro­vid­ed by the com­pa­ny and relate to its pre­vi­ous oper­at­ing activ­i­ty.

The Flori­da cam­paign forms part of a wider effort to gath­er oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence across mul­ti­ple US states. The eIPP is intend­ed to help the FAA and DOT assess air­craft per­for­mance, air­port infra­struc­ture and air­space inte­gra­tion as they devel­op a frame­work for rou­tine elec­tric air­craft oper­a­tions.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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