Virginia-based electric aircraft developer Electra wants to do away with what CEO Marc Allen describes as the “broken” hub-and-spoke airport model.
The company on Wednesday unveiled its vision for what it calls direct aviation—the concept of moving away from traditional, airport-to-airport operations by using thousands of smaller, underutilized sites closer to where passengers live and work. These could encompass airport ramps and taxiways as well as more austere locations, such as parking lots and rooftops.
Allen compared direct aviation to ground-based rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft. Travelers simply open their phone, order a flight, and arrive at their destination without having to transfer to another vehicle.
In an interview with FLYING earlier this year, the Electra CEO also drew a comparison to the iPhone.
“What [Apple] did was they intersected a number of emerging and developed technologies that yielded something people had always wanted,” Allen said. “Likewise, everybody’s always known that air travel ought to be connecting us from where we are to where we want to go, without long drives to airports, long security lines, waiting at gates for a long time. We’ve all wanted to be able to use the air the same way we use the roads.”
Electra Goes Direct
Electra believes it can make these streamlined trips a reality with its “ultra short” EL9, which is designed for takeoffs and landings on runways, unimproved surfaces, or any soccer field-sized space. The hybrid-electric model is intended for a pilot to fly up to nine passengers.
According to Electra, operations with the EL9 will be one-third the cost and orders of magnitude quieter than helicopters or vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) models. The company expects to deploy it for commercial service in 2029.
“At the end of the day, what the ultra short is giving operators is the opportunity to have a helicopter-like operating platform, but with all the benefits of the fixed-wing [aircraft] in terms of payload, range, safety, cost, speed,” Allen said.
The EL9 achieves takeoffs and landings with just 150 feet of ground roll by deploying a technology called blown lift. It directs airflows over the wings into large flaps and ailerons, which force the air downward to amplify lift. According to Electra, the technique allows the EL9 to lift off at a leisurely 35 knots.
At its full 3,000-pound capacity, the model has a projected range of 330 nm. Electra is working with Lockheed Martin’s secretive Skunk Works unit to offer a defense variant capable of carrying 1,000 pounds over 1,000 miles.
The company in August completed a series of flights with its EL2 Goldfinch demonstrator at Virginia Tech University. During the campaign, the aircraft operated on a grass field, drone pad, and access road adjacent to the university’s Transportation Institute.
“All three of those, I think, are pretty good examples that make your brain start spinning,” Allen said. “And, of course, all that’s on top of the airports and ramps and taxiways and helipads and vertiports.”
These novel takeoff and landing sites or “ultra short access points,” as Electra calls them, could open up a variety of alternatives to the “clogged” hub-and-spoke model. The company on Wednesday shared a few of them.
In the case of regional passenger service, for example, travelers could use underutilized airport space and “novel airstrips” to fly between cities and along commuted corridors between job centers and suburbs. These hubs could introduce regular service for hard-to-reach locations.
Ultra short access points could also serve as “leisure launchpads,” allowing vacationers to fly directly to lakes, beaches, or ski resorts without visiting an airport. The company further believes it can cut down on travel time by utilizing airport ramps and taxiways, envisioning remote terminals that are equipped with their own screening and parking facilities.
“It will require a full consortium of voices across safety, air traffic management, airports, to really do these in the right way when you’re talking about towered environments,” Allen said. “Doing that in the right way, step by step, is very important to us.”
Cargo flights, meanwhile, could travel directly between factories, warehouses, distribution centers, and other logistics facilities, bypassing the airport.
Electra said it will reveal sample direct aviation routes and operator partnerships in the coming months. Allen said early discussions have already begun regarding the use of airport space.
The Outlook
More work will be required to make direct aviation a reality, though the EL9 gives Electra a few distinct advantages.
The company is targeting EL9 certification under the FAA’s Part 23 category for normal aircraft, avoiding the cumbersome process of validating a VTOL design. The aircraft’s turbogenerator charges its batteries during flight, eliminating the need for ground-based charging systems.
But Allen said Electra’s direct aviation hubs will likely require some form of helicopter-like infrastructure: improved surfaces, markings, lighting, or some combination of these. He said the company will first determine what its operations will look like before discussing infrastructure requirements with regulators and other stakeholders.
“That’s an ongoing conversation that’ll be ongoing for the next several years as we work our way toward entry into service,” Allen said.
The Electra CEO in March told FLYING that it will implement direct aviation in “baby steps.” Initial operations will travel between airports, then from airport to non-airport, and finally between off-airport locations. Allen said the company’s path to market will go where demand goes, meaning it could start with passenger or cargo operations.
Electra in March said it reached 2,200 provisional EL9 orders from more than 60 operators worldwide, including fixed-wing and helicopter operators. The firm began accepting customer deposits in 2024 but as of March had not taken nonrefundable payments.
Allen said both fixed-wing and helicopter operators will “be able to take advantage of these great value propositions around access, cost, noise, and emissions that the EL9 offers.”
“They’ll pull the levers in slightly different ways to fit their really individual use cases,” he said.
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