Backed by a significant undisclosed investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures that was announced in January, Electra has been stepping up ground testing of the 150-kW hybrid-electric propulsion system it is developing. The system is for a subscale, two-seat eSTOL technology demonstrator that Electra plans to start flight testing before the end of 2022. The Virginia-based start-up says the production aircraft it aims to bring to market in 2026 is larger than the concept it proposed in 2020, with the changes having been prompted by discussions with provisional launch customers that collectively have signed letters of intent (LOIs) calling for deliveries of almost 300 aircraft.

Early commitments for the blown-lift eSTOL model that is now expected to carry up to nine passengers or 1,800 pounds of freight on sectors of up to around 500 miles have come from companies including helicopter operations group Bristow and charter flight booking platforms Yugo, Flapper, and Flyv. Acknowledging the contingent nature of most announced sales in the advanced air mobility sector, Electra founder and CEO John Langford told FutureFlight that at this stage it is the constructive input on the product concept that is the most valuable contribution to a new program. “There are no financial ties but what matters is that these LOIs make both sides think about how these aircraft can be used in practice, and that drives [understanding of] a lot of user requirements,” he explained.

When Electra's vehicle was first conceived, it was no more than a two-seater, but the design has evolved in response to customer interest, and the company now feels a nine-seater suitable for single-pilot operations is a regulatory and market sweet spot. Prospective operators, which also have the option of investing in new eVTOL aircraft, have told Langford that they desire “helicopter-like operations with better than fixed-wing operating costs.”

The benchmark for this performance is the ability to use Manhattan’s Wall Street or 30^th Street helipads, which offer the requisite 300-by-100-foot landing areas. “With a 50-foot wingspan, if you can make it in and out of Wall Street or 30^th Street, you can make it anywhere,” Langford quipped, channeling Frank Sinatra’s ode to New York City.

In fact, the unnamed eSTOL model is being developed so that it could also operate from larger spaces of between 500 and 1,000 feet, in which case it could operate at higher gross weight and/or fly farther. In his mind’s eye, Langford sees operations in which cargo would be moved from one distribution center to another, using any suitable flat surface, and with convenient road and rail connections nearby. He also sees parking lot rooftop operations as a way to take passengers to and from sites such as shopping malls and resorts.

“Most of the new vertiport concepts that people show us are perfect for us,” he said. “OK, we can’t land on a single helipad, but almost no heliports have just one pad; most have two or three, which gives room for eSTOL operations. We’re looking to exploit extremely versatile operations with very low infrastructure requirements that don’t require huge investments.”

Electra feels that the provision of charging infrastructure for the batteries of new all-electric aircraft will prove to be more complex than some of its rivals believe. This, in part, is why it chose to go down the path of combining hybrid propulsion with its own blown-lift design as part of a strategy that Langford said reflects a desire to be “very disruptive within the scale of traditional aviation, and we’re big believers on being infrastructure-light.”

In his view, decarbonizing aviation is now imperative to ensure that air transport has a sustainable future. “But it will be a long process that has to be done within the confines of an industry that has achieved high levels of safety and is resistant to doing anything that could change these,” he told FutureFlight.

The testbed for the hybrid propulsion system is near the Swiss capital Bern. After proving its take on the blown lift aerodynamics with wind-testing and computational fluid dynamic evaluations of a one-third scale model, the company has turned most of its focus over the past year or so to the propulsion system. The demonstrator powertrain uses an unspecified turbine as a turbogenerator and combines this with a gearbox and power rectifier.

The fact that several of Electra’s prospective early eSTOL adopters are flight booking platforms begs the question regarding who will actually own and operate the aircraft that are delivered since these ride-hailing groups typically market services provided by operating partners. Langford confirmed that the LOI agreements envisage on-demand charter flights that will involve partnerships with service providers that still need to be defined in detail. “Leasing companies will have to get into this business because these aircraft are very mobile assets that will likely be operated by lightly capitalized companies,” he concluded.

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