Norway Completes its First Electric Aviation Test Project Using BETA’s ALIA Aircraft

Nor­way reached an impor­tant mile­stone last week in its tran­si­tion to low- and zero-emis­sion avi­a­tion, with Bris­tow pilot Jere­my Degagne land­ing BETA Tech­nolo­gies’ ALIA air­craft in Sta­vanger after six months of test­ing.

The elec­tric avi­a­tion test project was car­ried out in coop­er­a­tion between Bris­tow, BETA, Avi­nor and CAA Nor­way. It is the first project con­duct­ed under Nor­way’s inter­na­tion­al test are­na, which was estab­lished by Avi­nor and CAA Nor­way in April 2024 to accel­er­ate the intro­duc­tion of new tech­nolo­gies in Nor­we­gian avi­a­tion.

Dur­ing the six-month peri­od, the air­craft per­formed reg­u­lar test flights on a car­go route between Sta­vanger and Bergen. Air­ports, air traf­fic con­trol, and reg­u­la­tors gained hands-on expe­ri­ence with charg­ing infra­struc­ture, win­ter oper­a­tions, new pro­ce­dures, and future train­ing needs.

And in a press release issued yes­ter­day (Mon­day), it says the project deliv­ered valu­able real-world expe­ri­ence in elec­tric air­craft oper­a­tions, infra­struc­ture, and reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works. Addi­tion­al­ly, it demon­strat­ed how new avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies can be intro­duced safe­ly and grad­u­al­ly into a high­ly reg­u­lat­ed envi­ron­ment, and how close coop­er­a­tion among author­i­ties, air­ports, oper­a­tors, and tech­nol­o­gy providers is essen­tial to a suc­cess­ful tran­si­tion.

Kar­i­anne Hel­land Strand, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent for Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and Infra­struc­ture, Avi­nor, said: “As the nation­al air­port oper­a­tor, Avi­nor has a clear respon­si­bil­i­ty to pre­pare our infra­struc­ture for the next gen­er­a­tion of avi­a­tion.

“Through this project, we have gained con­crete expe­ri­ence that will guide how we devel­op air­ports and charg­ing infra­struc­ture and pro­vide oper­a­tors with a stronger basis for assess­ing the future com­mer­cial via­bil­i­ty of routes based on new tech­nolo­gies. We will now build on these lessons in the next phase of our test and devel­op­ment projects.”

For the Nor­we­gian Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty, being part of this first of a kind demon­stra­tion pro­gramme has been a reward­ing expe­ri­ence on sev­er­al lev­els.

Close and con­tin­u­ous dia­logue with air traf­fic con­trol was a key fac­tor in the pro­jec­t’s suc­cess. Feed­back from con­trollers indi­cates the air­craft could be inte­grat­ed into exist­ing air­space with lim­it­ed addi­tion­al work­load, rein­forc­ing that inno­va­tion and safe­ty can go hand in hand.

Jan Pet­ter Stein­land, Direc­tor Strate­gic Analy­sis & Trans­for­ma­tion, added: “We have estab­lished a first ver­sion of a Reg­u­la­to­ry Sand­box and are able to eval­u­ate how the dif­fer­ent safe­ty reg­u­la­tions work in the con­text of this new tech­no­log­i­cal con­cept. We are also matur­ing our safe­ty method­ol­o­gy to be more fit for pur­pose for an inno­va­tion set­ting and can broad­en our com­pe­ten­cy on these tech­nolo­gies in the process.”

The project has also high­light­ed key strate­gic needs for the next phase of elec­tric avi­a­tion, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of robust charg­ing solu­tions, win­ter-adapt­ed infra­struc­ture, and ded­i­cat­ed train­ing for fire and res­cue ser­vices relat­ed to bat­ter­ies and alter­na­tive fuels.

The test project has been met with strong inter­est and opti­mism both in Nor­way and inter­na­tion­al­ly. Togeth­er, the part­ners now bring valu­able expe­ri­ence into the next phase of advanced air mobil­i­ty devel­op­ment, where tech­nol­o­gy, reg­u­la­tion, infra­struc­ture, and mar­ket poten­tial must advance in par­al­lel.

Dave Stepanek, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent, Chief Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer, Bris­tow Group, said: “This project rep­re­sents an impor­tant step toward the next gen­er­a­tion of flight. We’re proud to con­tribute real-world oper­a­tional and safe­ty expe­ri­ence that sup­ports the care­ful, respon­si­ble intro­duc­tion of elec­tric and sus­tain­able air­craft.

It’s also a source of pride to work along­side our part­ners in Nor­way, where Bris­tow has a long-stand­ing pres­ence, as we help move these tech­nolo­gies from test­ing toward prac­ti­cal, real-world use. We’ve learned a great deal, and we look for­ward to shar­ing that insight.”

Simon Newitt, Head of Sales & Sup­port, at BETA Tech­nolo­gies, added: “This project demon­strat­ed exact­ly how elec­tric avi­a­tion should be intro­duced with a planned, safe approach con­duct­ed in close part­ner­ship with reg­u­la­tors, oper­a­tors, and air­port author­i­ties.

Nor­way’s geog­ra­phy and region­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty needs make it unique­ly well suit­ed for elec­tric avi­a­tion.  Over six months of real-world oper­a­tions, BETA was able to val­i­date air­craft per­for­mance, charg­ing infra­struc­ture, pro­ce­dures, and win­ter oper­a­tions in one of the most demand­ing envi­ron­ments in avi­a­tion.

“The expe­ri­ence gained here direct­ly informs how elec­tric air­craft can be inte­grat­ed into exist­ing air­space and air­port sys­tems and scaled respon­si­bly to enable com­mer­cial oper­a­tions that deliv­er both low­er cost and low­er emis­sions.”

Facts

Num­ber of flights: 126
Total dis­tance flown: 8748 nau­ti­cal miles (16201 km)
Kilo­watt-hours charged: 12 MWh