U.S. Navy Selects Electra Aero “to Design Ship-Based eSTOL Logistics Aircraft”

It is now the turn of the U.S. Navy to award Elec­tra Aero a con­tract under the Naval Air Sys­tems Com­mand (NAVAIR) to explore the use of Electra’s elec­tric Short Take­off and Land­ing (eSTOL) air­craft, reports a press release.

Elec­tra is to work with Navy stake­hold­ers “to define spe­cif­ic con­test­ed logis­tics use cas­es and con­duct a con­cep­tu­al design study to eval­u­ate how its hybrid-elec­tric eSTOL air­craft can address unique Navy capa­bil­i­ty gaps,” explains the release.

Ben Mar­chion­na, Electra’s Direc­tor of Tech­nol­o­gy and Inno­va­tion, remarked, “Electra’s eSTOL has all the right tech­nol­o­gy-enabled capa­bil­i­ties to help the Navy address next-gen­er­a­tion avi­a­tion logis­tics chal­lenges. With our dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed com­bi­na­tion of hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion and a blown fixed wing, we can offer Pacif­ic the­atre-rel­e­vant pay­loads and ranges, and the abil­i­ty to oper­ate from rough soc­cer field-sized spaces as well as many naval ves­sels and adja­cent assets, all from day one.”

He con­tin­ued, “Beyond boil­er­plate tac­ti­cal logis­tics use cas­es, we also see this air­plane as an enabler for expe­di­tionary pow­er gen­er­a­tion, mesh net­work­ing, and even as an essen­tial node for Joint All-Domain Com­mand and Con­trol (JADC2) employ­ment.”

Elec­tra Aero Receives USD1.9 Mil­lion SBIR Con­tract from U.S Army 

Elec­tra’s tech­nol­o­gy deliv­ers 2.5x the pay­load and 10X longer range with 70 per­cent low­er oper­at­ing costs than ver­ti­cal take­off alter­na­tives with far less cer­ti­fi­ca­tion risk. Ongo­ing flight test­ing of Electra’s 2‑seat eSTOL tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tor air­craft show­cas­es its capa­bil­i­ty to oper­ate as a con­test­ed logis­tics plat­form with ground rolls as short as 150 feet. Elec­tra’s pro­duc­tion air­craft will car­ry 9 pas­sen­gers or 2,500 pounds of car­go up to 500 miles.

Its tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment is sup­port­ed by Lock­heed Mar­tin Ven­tures, the Vir­ginia Inno­va­tion Part­ner­ship Cor­po­ra­tion (VIPC), Statkraft Ven­tures, and oth­er pri­vate investors in addi­tion to con­tracts with NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Navy.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.electra.aero

(Top image: Elec­tra Aero)

For the lat­est news, insights and con­tent regard­ing the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty mar­ket, please join the fol­low­ing eVTOL Insights chan­nels: What­sApp, Face­book, Insta­gram, Spo­ti­fy, Apple Pod­casts, YouTube, X and LinkedIn.