Manassas, Va.-based Electra.aero has secured $115 million in Series B funding to navigate its flagship EL9 — billed as the first ultra short aircraft — into pre-production and certification phase. The airplane can take off and land in 150 feet — about the length of a soccer field, and a mere 10% of the “footprint” required for similarly-sized traditional aircraft, the company said.
The round was led by Prysm Capital, which has offices in New York, following which Jay Park, the firm’s co-founder and managing partner, joined Electra’s board. Electra’s prior backers include Norway’s Statkraft Ventures, Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Air Force, Honeywell, Safran, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. (VIPC) and private investors.
Founded in 2020 by MIT engineer John S. Langford, Electra is building a so-called STOL — short takeoff and landing — aircraft. Such aircraft boast the takeoff capabilities of a helicopter and the quiet of an electric vehicle, while offering cost advantages and safety features of a fixed-wing, fixed-propeller aircraft. A hybrid version, dubbed eSTOL, is also in development.
The company says the EL9 delivers up to 3,000 pounds of payload — about nine passengers and 50 lbs. of baggage per person, in addition to two pilots. It has a flying range of 1,100 nautical miles, with in-flight battery recharging eliminating the need for ground charging stations. The eSTOL is designed for a lower flying range of 400 nautical miles.
Varied Use Cases
Electra is led by CEO Marc Allen, a Boeing veteran who went on to head strategy during a 17-year stint with the aircraft maker. “At Electra, we are on a mission to deliver a new era of aviation, a leap forward in advanced air mobility that is both transformational and practical,” Allen said. “The EL9 Ultra Short opens the door to opportunities to establish new commercial routes, connect communities currently lacking aviation infrastructure, and enable entirely novel logistics capabilities for warfighters.”
Electra thinks the EL9 can be used in varied settings — places lacking aviation infrastructure and for defense missions in remote and austere environments, with its lower sound levels an added advantage.
“Electra’s EL9 Ultra Short is a game-changing aircraft that unlocks important new capabilities for commercial and defense users,” said Park of Prysm Capital. “The EL9 is the flagship of Electra’s future family of aircraft that will transform aviation with hybrid-electric technology.”
In March, Electra said it has so far secured more than 2,200 pre-orders, valued at over $10 billion, for the EL9. Electra also has won over 20 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and NASA, and is currently performing on a strategic funding increase contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop the EL9 for military use cases.
At Electra, Langford has built a team of experts from his previous venture, Aurora Flight Sciences, MIT, Boeing, Airbus, Pilatus and Hondajet. A key technical decision Electra has taken is to go with short takeoff technology, rather than the vertical takeoff favored by some other aviation startups. This, the company contends, expands payload and lowers cost. Compared to vertical lift designs, eSTOL delivers more than twice the payload and 10 times the range at substantially lower operating costs, Electra says. Lockheed Martin, which joined Electra as a strategic investor in 2021, is also playing a key role in integrated turbo-generator testing.
