Electra Plans Nine-Seat EL9 Hybrid-Electric Aircraft That Can Take Off and Land in About 60 Metres

Electra, a Virginia company founded in 2019, is developing the EL9, a nine-passenger hybrid-electric aircraft designed to take off or land within around 60 metres. The company calls this capability "Ultra Short" and says it removes the need for a long runway.

The design relies on blown lift, in which propellers push air quickly over the upper surface of the wing so that it generates far more lift at low speed and allows a very low approach speed. Military designers explored the principle in the 1950s and 1960s, including on Lockheed's F-104 Starfighter and the Blackburn Buccaneer. Diana Siegel, Electra's vice president of commercial programmes, says engineers understood the effect for decades but conventional engines could not deliver it in practice.

Electra's approach uses a hybrid propulsion system. Compact, lightweight electric motors generate lift and spread it evenly along the wing. In cruise, a nose-mounted turbogenerator burns sustainable aviation fuel, powers the propellers directly and recharges the batteries, so landing sites need no charging equipment.

Electra's two-seat demonstrator, the EL2 Goldfinch, recently took off and landed on a floating helicopter barge off Lower Manhattan. The company has selected a 96-acre site in Ohio for its production facility and plans to begin EL9 test flights late next year.

Electra estimates that 35 million passenger trips take place by car every day in the US, and says 80 percent of trips between 50 and 265 flying miles have no practical air option today. It has identified more than 6,000 routes with at least 1,000 travellers per day. The US is the first target market. Siegel cited London to Oxford and London to the Scottish Highlands as example journeys, and said the company's launch partners want to start with scheduled services.