Electra’s hybrid-electric Ultra Short aircraft completes successful flight demos for US military

Elec­tra has announced suc­cess­ful flight demon­stra­tions of its hybrid-elec­tric Ultra Short pro­to­type for mil­i­tary stake­hold­ers.

The demon­stra­tions were held at Marine Corps Air Facil­i­ty Quan­ti­co and Felk­er Army Air­field at Joint Base Lan­g­ley-Eustis in Vir­ginia, where they show­cased the aircraft’s dual-use capa­bil­i­ties for logis­tics oper­a­tions in aus­tere envi­ron­ments.
 
The Ultra Short aircraft’s unique abil­i­ty to take off and land in extreme­ly short dis­tances from min­i­mal­ly pre­pared areas was a focal point of the demon­stra­tions. This enables rapid and flex­i­ble resup­ply mis­sions in con­test­ed envi­ron­ments where tra­di­tion­al airstrips may be unavail­able or com­pro­mised.

The demo flights includ­ed take­offs and land­ings from grass fields, demon­strat­ing aus­tere oper­a­tions off-run­way with­out the need for ground sup­port infra­struc­ture. Elec­tra Chief Test Pilot Cody Allee flew tight 150-foot radius turns to show­case the aircraft’s low-alti­tude, low-speed maneu­ver­abil­i­ty, fur­ther empha­siz­ing the plane’s sur­viv­abil­i­ty in com­plex mil­i­tary sce­nar­ios.

Jacob Wil­son, AFWERX Agili­ty Prime act­ing branch chief, said: “AFWERX is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing the accel­er­at­ed devel­op­ment of the dual-use Ultra Short tech­nol­o­gy. This aircraft’s effi­cient, qui­et, and sus­tain­able oper­a­tions align with mil­i­tary objec­tives for con­test­ed and expe­di­tionary logis­tics.

“Its hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem pro­vides extend­ed range and endurance, mak­ing it suit­able for Agile Com­bat Employ­ment mis­sions in aus­tere loca­tions with com­pro­mised or nonex­is­tent run­ways.”

The demos includ­ed a mobile pow­er gen­er­a­tion dis­play, dur­ing which the pre-flight pre­sen­ta­tion equip­ment and sound sys­tem were pow­ered direct­ly from the air­plane.  

As a mobile pow­er gen­er­a­tor, the pro­duc­tion air­craft will offer over 600 kW of con­tin­u­ous pow­er and more than 1 MW for short bursts, mak­ing it a ver­sa­tile asset for a vari­ety of mil­i­tary mis­sions, from tac­ti­cal inser­tions to med­ical evac­u­a­tions.

Electra’s Ultra Short air­craft also pro­vides sig­nif­i­cant oper­a­tional ener­gy advan­tages, with fuel con­sump­tion that is one-third that of heli­copters per­form­ing sim­i­lar mis­sions. Electra’s air­craft are posi­tioned to sup­port oper­a­tions in remote loca­tions with min­i­mal infra­struc­ture, poten­tial­ly oper­at­ing from ships and barges.

JP Stew­art, Vice Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of Elec­tra, added: “These flight demon­stra­tions mark a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for Elec­tra as we show the capa­bil­i­ties of the tech­nol­o­gy in the real-world. “Our Ultra Short air­craft make it pos­si­ble to oper­ate from aus­tere loca­tions pre­vi­ous­ly only reach­able by heli­copters, with 70 per­cent low­er costs and very qui­et oper­a­tions.

“We’re excit­ed to col­lab­o­rate with our gov­ern­ment part­ners to deliv­er a new lev­el of capa­bil­i­ty and oper­a­tional ener­gy effi­cien­cy that aligns with the future of defense logis­tics and mobil­i­ty.”
 
Electra’s Ultra Short air­craft also pro­vides sig­nif­i­cant oper­a­tional ener­gy advan­tages, with fuel con­sump­tion that is one-third that of heli­copters per­form­ing sim­i­lar mis­sions. The com­pa­ny’s air­craft are posi­tioned to sup­port oper­a­tions in remote loca­tions with min­i­mal infra­struc­ture, poten­tial­ly oper­at­ing from ships and barges.. 
 
Elec­tra con­tin­ues to expand the Ultra Short air­craft flight enve­lope dur­ing the ongo­ing flight test cam­paign. The tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tor is pro­vid­ing crit­i­cal data to inform the devel­op­ment of Elec­tra’s nine-pas­sen­ger pilot­ed pro­duc­tion air­craft, which is being devel­oped under an active STRATFI con­tract with AFWERX.