Norway Selects Five Sites for Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Demonstrations in 2027

Five loca­tions across Nor­way have been select­ed for planned 2027 demon­stra­tion flights of Electra’s EL2 hybrid-elec­tric tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tor, in a project involv­ing Bris­tow Group, Elec­tra, air­port oper­a­tor Avi­nor and the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty of Nor­way.

The pro­gramme will exam­ine how ultra-short take-off and land­ing (ultra-STOL) air­craft could oper­ate in dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments, from estab­lished air­ports to loca­tions with­out con­ven­tion­al run­ways. The first demon­stra­tion flight is planned for the third quar­ter of 2027.

The select­ed sites are Horvnes quay near Sand­nessjøen, Kongs­berg­porten Busi­ness Park, Trond­heim Air­port, Oslo Air­port and Mosjøen Air­port. The loca­tions rep­re­sent three oper­at­ing envi­ron­ments: nov­el land­ing sites, larg­er avi­a­tion hubs and short-run­way air­ports.

Horvnes quay and Kongs­berg­porten Busi­ness Park will be used to assess oper­a­tions at sites with­out estab­lished run­ways. Demon­stra­tions at Trond­heim and Oslo air­ports will focus on inte­gra­tion into larg­er air­port envi­ron­ments, while Mosjøen Air­port will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to exam­ine oper­a­tions at a short-run­way facil­i­ty in north­ern Nor­way, includ­ing poten­tial new approach pro­ce­dures.

Electra’s EL2 demon­stra­tor is designed to take off and land in approx­i­mate­ly 50 metres. Its propul­sion sys­tem com­bines elec­tric propul­sion with a tur­bo­gen­er­a­tor pow­ered by sus­tain­able avi­a­tion fuel. The Nor­we­gian demon­stra­tions will use the EL2 tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tor rather than the company’s planned EL9 air­craft.

The project aims to gath­er oper­a­tional data and assess the infra­struc­ture, air­space pro­ce­dures and reg­u­la­to­ry arrange­ments that could be need­ed to sup­port future hybrid-elec­tric air­craft. It will also exam­ine how air­craft with dif­fer­ent oper­at­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics can be inte­grat­ed safe­ly into exist­ing air traf­fic.

Avi­nor and the Nor­we­gian Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty said the range of test envi­ron­ments would help deter­mine whether cur­rent reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works are suit­able for emerg­ing air­craft tech­nolo­gies. Bris­tow and Elec­tra will work with the Nor­we­gian part­ners to devel­op the detailed test pro­gramme and pre­pare the sites, sub­ject to the nec­es­sary approvals.

The demon­stra­tions form part of Norway’s Inter­na­tion­al Test Are­na for zero- and low-emis­sion avi­a­tion, a gov­ern­ment-backed ini­tia­tive led by Avi­nor and the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty. The pro­gramme is intend­ed to sup­port the intro­duc­tion of low­er-emis­sion avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies through prac­ti­cal test­ing and the devel­op­ment of reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works.

The results could help inform future plans for region­al air trans­port using air­craft able to serve loca­tions beyond the con­ven­tion­al air­port net­work. How­ev­er, the 2027 flights are intend­ed to build oper­a­tional and reg­u­la­to­ry knowl­edge rather than rep­re­sent the start of sched­uled com­mer­cial ser­vices.

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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