What could be a revolution in aviation is taking place in the skies over the North Country. BETA Technologies, a company based in Vermont has been testing a new type of aircraft powered entirely by electricity. The company is planning to build a new factory at the airport in Burlington, hire as many as 500 additional workers, and begin manufacturing hundreds of its electric planes as soon as it receives FAA certification, which the company is hopeful will come by 2024. For the past three years, BETA has been doing tests flights from Plattsburgh International Airport. We talk with Chris Caputo, with BETA Technologies, about those flights being conducted out of a hangar on the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base, and the new generation of electric aircraft that can fly like a plane but also take-off and land vertically like a helicopter. The aircraft, called ALIA-250, can carry up to 6 passengers or 1,500 pounds of cargo. Shipping giant United Parcel Service is the first major company to order the new aircraft, with plans to use the electric planes to transport express packages directly between UPS facilities, instead of airports.
NOVA takes a look at the revolutionary development of electric aircraft, driven in large part, by the climate crisis and push to find an alternative to the use of jet fuel, which is a major polluter. Miles O’Brien explores the many projects hoping to take off in the near future. Learn/Watch more: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova