$8 to fly 130km in 35 minutes? Electric air taxi just made it real

US aerospace manufacturer flies passengers into future

- BY JAY HILOTIN Senior Assistant Editor

So, this happened just recently: Beta Technologies pulled off a major milestone in electric flight.

Their Alia aircraft — a fully electric air taxi — flew from East Hampton to JFK with four passengers onboard on June 3.

It was an actual passenger flight, all-electric, quiet, and efficient, which cost $8 in electricity to fly, as per Beta.

"This is a 100 per cent electric airplane that just flew from East Hampton to JFK with passengers on it, which was a first for the New York Port Authority (NYPA) and the New York area. We covered 70-odd nautical miles in 35 minutes," said CEO Kyle Clark.

That's about 130km in just over half an hour — no gas, no roar of jet engines, just smooth, clean air travel.

In March, its Alia CX300 became the first all-electric aircraft to perform a coast-to-coast flight in the US.

$8: Cost of charging