BETA kicks off its eIPP program with Virginia organ transport flight
Vermont-based BETA Technologies announced Friday it has conducted what it called the first operational flight under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, this week transporting a genetically modified pig heart.
A BETA electric conventional takeoff and landing airplane carried the manufactured organ developed by United Therapeutics, one of BETA’s early investors, to test transport of transplant organs. The company said it is still working out the details of routes and how often such flights will occur.
The eIPP is intended to safely integrate electric air taxis and drones into the national airspace through public-private partnerships between state and local governments and private electric aircraft developers to test real-world use cases.
BETA’s flights in Virginia are part of a multistate collaborative in the eIPP that includes Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and 15 other states. Those states on Thursday signed an agreement with the DOT detailing the organ transplant flights, and the first flight occurred on Friday, Kristen Costello, BETA’s head of government and regulatory affairs, told me.
The Friday flight originated at Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport in Blacksburg, Virginia and flew to Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport in Charlottesville, Virginia. From there, it was to continue to Frederick Municipal Airport in Frederick, Maryland and Martin State Airport in Baltimore County, Maryland, the company said in a press release.
The total flight distance was to be 315 miles. The organ it carried was purely for research purposes and was not intended for a human donor, but that is the eventual goal of the program, Costello said.
Kyle Clark, founder and chief executive officer of BETA Technologies, said in the release the flights “set the stage for routine medical applications through electric flight at a much lower cost nationwide.”
