RICHMOND, British Columbia - Helijet International Inc. in Richmond, British Columbia, selected aircraft from BETA Technologies in Burlington, Vermont, for passenger and cargo services using electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.
Helijet, a helicopter airline and charter service that primarily serves southwest British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, selected BETA's ALIA eVTOL to integrate into its helicopter services.
BETA’s ALIA electric aircraft has a 50-foot wingspan, a range of 250 miles with a top speed of 138 mph and is 90% quieter than a helicopter.
The electric aircraft’s vertical take-off and landing capability will provides potential to enhance Helijet’s provision of emergency response, air ambulance and organ transfer services in the Lower Mainland, as well as support rural and remote communities that do not have access to affordable and convenient air services.
Helijet’s decision to become BETA’s first commercial customer order from Canada is due in part to BETA’s intention to certify the aircraft for IFR (instrument flight rules) operations, and its interest to consider growing its industrial base in Canada. BETA has already begun to grow its presence across the country with an R&D facility based out of the Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
“We are proud to partner with BETA Technologies, who are leaders in the advanced air mobility space,” Helijet President and CEO Danny Sitnam said. “We are committed to introducing and integrating zero-emission, vertical lift technologies and related ground/building infrastructure in the communities we serve and look forward to transforming our current heliport infrastructure to meet future urban air mobility vertiport standards.”
In late October, the U.S. Air Force took delivery of its own ALIA eVTOL for testing. The USAF plans to demonstrate its potential to support agile combat employment logistics with its payload capacity of 1,000 pounds.
“All of the testing will be contractor owned and operated but the 413th FLTS wrote the test and safety plan,” said Maj. Riley Livermore, 413th Flight Test Squadron flight commander. “We are responsible for coordinating daily flight operations to include range scheduling and logistics support. Then we’ll write a report following the conclusion of the test deployment to report our findings.”
