A bright yellow aircraft made history in the hills of Blacksburg, Virginia, or more specifically Electra’s EL2 Goldfinch. This two-seater hybrid-electric plane, designed for short takeoffs and landings, flew its first public demo at Virginia Tech earlier this month.
Electra’s EL2 can do what most planes can’t: take off and land in spaces that would make a traditional pilot break a sweat. At Virginia Tech, the plane showed off its skills on three different surfaces. First, it used a 300-by-75-foot paved strip, usually reserved for small drones, to get airborne in under 150 feet. Then, in a nod to its versatility, it tackled an access road with Virginia’s Department of Transportation to show it could handle unconventional terrain. Finally, it danced across a grass field at the university’s Corporate Research Center to prove it doesn’t need a runway to function safely.
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What makes the EL2 so agile? It’s all about blown lift, a brilliant mechanism in which eight electric propellers along the wings’ leading edge push air over enormous flaps at the back. This configuration allows the plane to generate enough lift to take off at 35 mph, which is the same speed as driving through a neighborhood. Batteries provide power during takeoff, but once airborne, a small turbogenerator kicks in to keep things running smoothly or recharge the batteries while in flight.
Electra partnered with Surf Air Mobility, a company with a long history of regional air travel, to make these flights real. Surf Air’s expertise, gained from millions of passenger miles with its Southern Airways and Mokulele Airlines brands, adds credibility to the event. Their SurfOS software, designed to streamline scheduling and operations, gives a glimpse into how the EL2’s bigger sibling, the nine-seat EL9, could scale up for commercial use by 2029. Marc Allen, Electra’s CEO, called the flights “breathtakingly short” and he’s not wrong.
Virginia Tech’s campus was more than just a backdrop. The university’s National Security Institute, led by executive director Eric Paterson, sees the EL2 as a window into the future of aviation. Paterson pointed out that these flights showed how the EL9 could blend in with everyday environments, from small community fields to urban lots. The idea is simple but powerful: instead of driving for hours to get to a distant airport, you could take a flight from a nearby strip and save hours. A Georgia Tech study backs this up, showing strong demand for short-hop flights between 50 and 300 miles—too far to drive but too short for traditional planes to be practical. Electra’s vision of Direct Aviation aims to make these trips fast, affordable and accessible.
Electra says the EL9 will operate at a third the cost of a helicopter, and be 100 times quieter. Louis Saint-Cyr, Surf Air’s COO, highlighted the EL9’s operational edge: quicker turnarounds, lower costs and easier deployment. With over 2,200 pre-orders from 60 operators worldwide, the market seems to agree. The EL2’s flights at Virginia Tech were a proof of concept, showing this is quickly becoming a reality.
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