Aurora Founder Reveals New Company Called Electra That Plans to Develop Hybrid-Electric STOL Aircraft Written 16 April 2020

Aviation Week reports that Aurora Flight Sciences founder and former CEO John Langford “is launching a new venture to develop hybrid-electric regional transport aircraft.” The “new company, called Electra, is planned to launch this summer and is looking at a family of short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircraft with from 4-6 to 35-40 seats.” Langford said that Electra is “virtual today, in the organizational stage and by the time the pandemic ends I hope we’ll be in a position to take it to the stage of a real in-person company.” While Langford “is a believer in the urban air mobility market – which Aurora is pursuing through its Personal Air Vehicle two-passenger autonomous electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing project – he believes that full autonomy is essential for that market to be economically viable.” Langford said, “And that is very much, in my belief, a job for a big company. That’s the appropriate thing for companies like The Boeing Company and Airbus to be doing because it’s going to be a really big deal to get that certified. ... Economically, I believe, you can’t operate at scale with pilots when you are carrying two people.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)