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BETA's electric ALIA flies five days of medical cargo trials in Utah
BETA Technologies flew its all-electric ALIA CTOL aircraft for five days in Utah to test moving time-critical medical cargo, including radiopharmaceuticals that lose potency as they decay. The flights ran under the US eVTOL Integration Pilot Program with the Utah Department of Transportation, the aerospace group 47G and cargo operator Alpine Air Express.
- The article cites fludeoxyglucose, a cancer-imaging agent that loses half its activity in about 110 minutes, as an example of why speed matters.
- No performance figures from the trial were published; the only stated detail is the five-day run.
- BETA and Alpine Air will gather data on flight times, dispatch reliability, turnaround, charging time, weather and operating costs.
- The aim is to find routes where electric aircraft could complement today's conventional long-distance medical flights.
- BETA is involved in seven of the eight programs in the federal pilot scheme and has flown operational missions in five other states.