News / How a lung transplant led to the take-off of an electric cargo aircraft

Like with all good start-ups, there is a great story behind it (and one that will put most parents to shame).

The tale starts with the founder of broadcasting company SiriusXM, Martine Rothblatt, who discovered her daughter had a rare lung disease. Not accepting an ‘incurable’ diagnosis, she sold her company and set up another, United Therapeutics, to find a cure – which she did, but it would necessitate her daughter undergoing a lung transplant.

But shipping human organs is notoriously difficult – and Ms Rothblatt also wanted it to be carbon-neutral. When she met Kyle Clark, an entrepreneur and pilot pitching an idea for electric aircraft, they began talking.

Together, they outlined Beta Technologies — an electric aircraft that could move transplanted organs — and Ms Rothblatt signed up to invest.

The end result of what turned into a 12-hour meeting was the take-off of Beta Technologies, which has attracted $800m of investment, with additional backers like Fidelity, TPG’s Rise Climate and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.

And take-off it just has: last week, Beta completed the first flight of a fully electric aircraft into Montreal, from Plattsburgh Airport in New York. And it has just cut the ribbon on its new manufacturing facility at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport in Vermont.

The Alia eCTOL, named after Ms Rothblatt’s daughter, is one of two aircraft the company makes: a fixed-wing with conventional take-off and landing; and one with vertical abilities, the Alia VTOL. The company already has orders for up to 150 aircraft from UPS, as well as from the likes of Bristow, LCI and others.

The aircraft are still waiting for FAA certification for commercial flights, explained Patrick Buckles, chief revenue officer, talking to The Loadstar on the sidelines of Air Cargo Handling & Logistics conference in Athens this month.

“VTOL is pretty new for the FAA. It was originally going to treat it like a normal aircraft, but that changed.”

While Europe’s EASA and the FAA are moving toward defined regulations, BETA’s aircraft has been granted a licence for operations in the UAE, alongside UPS.

Once up and running, the benefits of electric aviation can be huge, said Mr Buckles. With a payload up to 600kg (1.2 tonnes) and a range of up to 400km, the use case for the aircraft is similar to a Cessna, said Mr Buckles.

“The operating economics are great, and 40% to 60% less than using fuel,” he said – which brings us onto the battery.

“The battery is a big thing. We have five under the belly, but each pack weighs 300kg. The biggest component will be replacing the batteries, but when you do, you get the latest technology, and batteries get 5% to 7% more efficient each year. And then you get a better payload.”

It takes about 45 minutes, on a high charge, to take the batteries from empty to full, but slowing the  charge down is better for the battery life, explained Mr Buckles.

“To charge that fast takes a ton of power, you would need new transformers. So we make a microgrid for batteries on site, and they trickle charge from the grid and then charge the aircraft to minimise the impact to the [national] grid.” But the microgrid can also charge from solar, wind and other sources of energy.

The ALIA aircraft are crewed – and Beta has been conducting flight tests with a pilot in the cockpit for more than three years. In fact each of the 600 team members of Beta has been offered the opportunity to get a pilot’s licence – but the design envisages perhaps one day flying autonomously. In the meantime, with about 300 staff now with pilot licences, “it builds an affinity with what a pilot has to go through”.

The use cases are clear. he said: “There is interest in Africa for medical payloads and humanitarian relief, and we see a lot of interest through South-east Asia. Air New Zealand is a partner.”

Economically, Beta’s two aircraft look better than a traditional equivalent. The VTOL aircraft is thought to cost about $4.5m, while the fixed-wing version some $3.5m – against about $3m for a traditional equivalent.

“But these new aircraft halve, or better, the operating costs.”

While the aircraft can be adapted to take passengers, “its cargo role is first”, said Mr Buckles, “as there is a lower risk profile”.

He added: “Competitors are going for the urban taxi space, not many are going after cargo.”

Beta’s first deal was with UPS in 2021, but it also works with the US military, its only source of revenue at the moment. Cost-wise, “it takes about $1bn to build and bring an aircraft to market”.

Beta thinks it can make some 300 aircraft a year and its facility can be increased in size for when large-scale manufacturing is up and running.

It’s a far step from founder Kyle Clark, who according to Mr Buckles, spent his childhood creating aircraft designs – which his mum burned, so he couldn’t hurt himself.