Nate Dubie: I never thought I’d be the pilot to fly the first electric airplane over the Grand Canyon, but here we are. Over six or so weeks this past spring, my fellow ALIA pilots and I had the unique opportunity to fly our 916LF aircraft — the serial number one off our production line in Vermont — from coast to coast across the U.S., visiting our awesome customers and seeing some of the most beautiful and iconic landmarks in the country.
Noah Ranallo: It was the perfect opportunity to show people that electric aviation is real. A lot of people don’t even know that next-generation airplanes are out there flying around — and, I guess, why would they? But the reality is that this isn’t some far-off future, it’s happening right now and companies like BETA and others in the industry are working to bring it to customers and businesses as soon as possible. We set out on this coast-to-cost “BETA Barnstorm” with the intent to put our first production aircraft to the test, and show it to customers. Everything works on paper, but until you actually put a pilot in the aircraft and test it in the real world, how can you be sure it works?
Dubie: It was important to validate, for ourselves as much as for customers and regulators, that this aircraft is ready to enter service as we get ready to deliver to our first customers later this year.
Ranallo: Planning this effort was no small task, but most of that was not a challenge from a pilot’s perspective — the challenges were all centered around the lack of infrastructure and support for electric aircraft in the world today. We quickly built a skeleton crew of pilots, maintainers, charge network planners, and a few more to capture it all.
Dubie: Yeah, we wanted to showcase what we’ve come to know really well over the past five years: that electric planes can do everything normal airplanes can do — integrate into the national airspace, climb quickly, fly reliably, and cover serious ground. It’s especially true when you have the infrastructure to charge. It was actually really easy with the infrastructure, so we need to keep building.
Ranallo: For the first 10 days, we wanted to focus on getting the aircraft out west with plenty of time before our first planned engagements. This meant that we didn’t have a lot of “play time” or opportunity to deviate from the most direct path out to Las Vegas. We were lucky that one of the most incredible national parks, the Grand Canyon, lay directly on our path.
