Overview
- The FAA granted BETA a Special Airworthiness Certificate for market surveys on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, allowing the company to carry customers and partners on supervised ALIA A250 demonstration flights.
- BETA completed the first authorized market-survey flight the same day, flying the A250 from Plattsburgh, New York, to Burlington, Vermont, a 34‑nautical‑mile trip that took about 20 minutes and included a vertical-to-wing transition and a vertical landing.
- The authorization is limited to demonstrations and does not replace the FAA’s full type certification or approvals required for scheduled commercial passenger service.
- The ALIA A250 is designed for short community links and can carry up to five passengers and two pilots or more than 1,200 pounds of cargo, and it shares propulsion, avionics, batteries, and charging systems with BETA’s CTOL CX300.
- The flights give prospective operators hands‑on data to assess routes and operations for passenger, cargo, medical, and defense uses, and they signal FAA willingness to let developers demonstrate eVTOLs while safety and certification work continues.