BETA’s ALIA aircraft completes flight demonstrations across Utah, weeks after signing historic agreement in US state

BETA Tech­nolo­gies has com­plet­ed a series of flights across Utah, fly­ing its ALIA air­craft to six air­ports in the state.

These demon­stra­tions come just weeks after Beta and 47G | Utah Aero­space & Defense (47G) signed a his­toric agree­ment to bring advanced air mobil­i­ty (AAM) to Utah — with sup­port from the state’s Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (UDOT) and the Governor’s Office of Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty (GOEO). 

BETA pilots Noah Ranal­lo and Nate Dubie flew into Salt Lake City Air­port, Pro­vo Air­port, Heber City Air­port, Logan-Cache Val­ley Air­port, Ogden Air­port, and Ver­nal Air­port, cov­er­ing more than 350 miles.

The series of flights high­light­ed the qui­et effi­cien­cy of AAM, cut­ting trav­el dis­tance by two-thirds as com­pared to rel­a­tive dri­ve times. 

Car­los Brac­eras, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of UDOT, said: “We move people—and the things they need—using more than just roads. These demon­stra­tions are more than just a tech­nol­o­gy show­case — they rep­re­sent a fun­da­men­tal shift in how we think about mobil­i­ty.

“As Utah’s pop­u­la­tion grows and we face increas­ing demands on our ground trans­porta­tion sys­tem, we know that advanced air mobil­i­ty offers inno­v­a­tive new solu­tions to address our evolv­ing mobil­i­ty needs.” 

Res­i­dents and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers from across the state joined these events to see ALIA fly and learn how this tech­nol­o­gy will increase access and mobil­i­ty to their com­mu­ni­ties.

These routes show­cased how AAM can help reduce com­mute times, con­nect rur­al and urban com­mu­ni­ties, expand job access, pro­vide crit­i­cal med­ical ser­vices, and improve air qual­i­ty through­out the state.

Kyle Clark, founder and CEO of BETA Tech­nolo­gies, said: “Utah has demon­strat­ed for­ward-think­ing lead­er­ship and a strong com­mit­ment to invest­ing in advanced air mobil­i­ty.

Utah is way ahead of the game mak­ing the right invest­ments ear­ly and pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary sup­port to stand up an air mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem that can dri­ve real impact.” 

BETA’s ALIA is designed for util­i­ty, with the abil­i­ty to trans­port up to five pas­sen­gers or 1,250 pounds of car­go. In addi­tion, the company’s Charge Cubes uti­lize the indus­try stan­dard accept­ed by most air taxi man­u­fac­tur­ers around the world.

BETA’s Charge Cubes can also be used to charge ground vehi­cles, mak­ing them a cut­ting-edge tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion that will fur­ther enhance the scal­a­bil­i­ty of air trans­porta­tion while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly help­ing to meet the needs of ground vehi­cles.

Ranal­lo added: “We received such a warm wel­come from the res­i­dents of Utah. I think this week’s flights real­ly demon­strat­ed how qui­et, cost-effec­tive and safe this tech­nol­o­gy real­ly is. It was a great feel­ing to bring this tech­nol­o­gy to the peo­ple it will ulti­mate­ly impact, and to feel their excite­ment.”

The agree­ment between BETA and its Utah-based part­ners will help estab­lish a statewide elec­tric charg­ing net­work for both air­craft and ground-based vehi­cles, cre­ate pilot train­ing pro­grams, and devel­op a mod­el to fore­cast flight oper­a­tions. It also encour­ages flight demon­stra­tions that help edu­cate and engage the pub­lic on this new form of trans­porta­tion.

It is part of a broad­er effort 47G is under­tak­ing to inte­grate AAM into Utah’s trans­porta­tion offer­ings by the 2034 Win­ter Olympic Games — includ­ing expand­ing exist­ing drone pack­age deliv­ery, insti­tut­ing reli­able car­go trans­port and mov­ing peo­ple.

Chris Metts, 47G Project Alta Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, said: “By inte­grat­ing cut­ting-edge elec­tric air­craft into our mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem, we are ensur­ing the high­est stan­dards of safe­ty, advanc­ing med­ical response capa­bil­i­ties and dri­ving tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion that will cre­ate last­ing ben­e­fits for com­mu­ni­ties across the state.

“Utah is attract­ing invest­ment, accel­er­at­ing the devel­op­ment of crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture and enabling the deploy­ment of air­craft that make our trans­porta­tion sys­tem safe and tru­ly mul­ti­modal.”

Utah boasts a diverse geog­ra­phy, vari­able weath­er, well-dis­trib­uted air­ports, expan­sive land for test­ing and a vibrant avi­a­tion indus­try. Over the past decade, Utah has been the youngest and fastest-grow­ing state in the coun­try.

With 90 per cent of Utahns liv­ing with­in a 30-minute dri­ve of an air­port, state lead­ers are seek­ing sus­tain­able and inno­v­a­tive mobil­i­ty options to keep Utah mov­ing.