A look at battery-powered aircraft that could lead transition from fossil-fueled flight

Amna Nawaz:

Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration approved the first training program in the country for electric aviation. The program is just one part of a small, but burgeoning effort to develop greener air travel.

Our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien, has that report.

Man:

Be great. Be great.

Miles O'Brien:

It was game day for Nate Moyer, a former Air Force test pilot. He was cool as a cucumber, facing uncharted airspace ahead. His goal? Fly a new kind of battery-powered aircraft through a tricky transition.

Man:

Safe area is clear. Pattern is all yours.

Miles O'Brien:

It lifted off like a helicopter, but then he stopped the vertical rotors, turning the craft into an airplane.

It's called an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOL. It was a pivotal moment for a company that hopes to lead the transition away from fossil-fueled flight.

Kyle Clark, Founder and CEO, Beta Technologies: I felt like my purpose was to fly.

Miles O'Brien:

Engineer and avid aviator Kyle Clark is the founder and CEO of Beta Technologies, based in Burlington, Vermont.

Kyle Clark:

Somewhere around 30 years old, I, like, had this realization, like, damn. I do genuinely care not only about my own kids, but the future of the world. And that's when I realized that the electric aviation had an outsized importance.

Miles O'Brien:

Right now, aviation accounts for about 3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally. But as airline travel increases and other transportation sectors get greener, that piece of the climate emergency pie is growing fast.

Is aviation responding quickly enough to this challenge?

Kyle Clark:

In my view, aviation absolutely isn't responding quick enough.

Miles O'Brien:

That's because aviation remains skeptical of electric flight. Lithium ion batteries are about 24 times heavier than jet fuel for the same amount of energy. That might seem like a showstopper for an industry obsessed with weight watching.

But the energy density of new lithium ion batteries improves between 5 and 7 percent annually, doubling about every seven years.

Kyle Clark:

That means, if we start development today on a 19-, 30-, 60-passenger aircraft, it will be flying 1,300 to 1,500 miles by 2032.

Miles O'Brien:

The Beta craft is designed to carry cargo or five passengers, plus pilot, with a range of about 250 nautical miles.

In October of 2023, a fixed-wing version flew more than 2,000 miles to the Florida Panhandle. Flight test engineer Emma Davis coordinated the multileg journey.

EMMA DAVIS, Beta Technologies:

You can get in it, you can fly in it, you can carry cargo in it. This aircraft isn't a gimmick. It is a real-world aircraft. It is reliable. It can be ready and available to pick up missions as needed.

Miles O'Brien:

Proving that is why they brought the eVTOL here to Duke Field. This is where the air force does its helicopter flight testing.

The Pentagon is interested in seeing how well eVTOLs might suit its needs in moving personnel, cargo or on medevac missions.

Colonel Tom Meagher is with the Air Force innovation lab AFWERX.

COL. TOM MEAGHER, AFWERX:

So the things that we want to learn is, how do you operate an electric aircraft? So that includes not only the infrastructure, but the maintenance personnel, operations, the charging. We want to learn about all those facets that we previously don't have experience with.

Miles O'Brien:

Over the course of three months, they flew about 100 test missions to civilian and military airports in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, testing its perforMance in the air and attached to chargers.

It had a near-100 percent dispatch rate. The Pentagon hopes to bolster a flourishing homegrown electric aviation industry. A decade ago, the Federal Aviation Administration moved too slowly, and China took the lead on commercial drone technology. It has not looked back.

COL. TOM MEAGHER:

We want to make sure that did not happen with this part of the emerging aviation sector. So it was critical that we established these companies within the U.S., so that we have them not only for near-term use, but also down the line for not only government use, but also commercial use cases.

Miles O'Brien:

But when it comes to electric aviation, China is not slowing down. The country dominates lithium ion battery production and has already certified one fixed-wing electric airplane and two eVTOL models; eVTOL Manufacturers are designing their aircraft to be flown autonomously, but it is far from certain when the Federal Aviation Administration might approve that.

So, at first, Beta's aircraft will fly with a pilot on board, carrying cargo. UPS is a customer, as is United Therapeutics, a biotech company focused partly on organ transplantation. Eventually, Beta envisions unpiloted missions, carrying both cargo and passengers.

Kyle Clark:

This prop right here, obviously, it's not pushing a motor or an engine, so it spins freely.

Miles O'Brien:

Kyle Clark gave me a tour of Beta's production facility, where they aim to build 300 aircraft a year, a big number in the world of aviation.

Kyle Clark:

We have aspirations of building more aircraft than that. There's a lot of folks in this industry that are talking about thousands of aircraft per year, and we believe we're going to get there as well.

Miles O'Brien:

One of the market leaders in the U.S., Santa Cruz, California-based, Joby, is aiming to build thousands of eVTOL aircraft that could serve as flying taxis in traffic-strangled megacities.

Joeben Bevirt, Founder and CEO, Joby Aviation: We're excited about the day when this becomes part of people's daily lives.

Miles O'Brien:

Joeben Bevirt is the founder and CEO of Joby.

Joeben Bevirt:

Our goal is absolutely to drive it down over time to something that's affordable for Many people to use on a regular basis.

Miles O'Brien:

Delta Air Lines has invested $60 million in Joby. The airline envisions flying its customers on Joby eVTOLs to and from the three existing heliports in Manhattan to JFK Airport.

But Delta CEO Ed Bastian says his company also invested to learn about electric flight and how it could be applied to reach Delta's 2050 net carbon zero goal for its entire fleet.

Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines:

It's highly ambitious. If I said I had a pathway to that, I'd be kidding myself. We're a hard-to-abate sector, as defined. I mean, we just don't have a substitute for jet fuel currently.

Miles O'Brien:

The race to find a practical alternative will force federal regulators to explore and grasp some technologies that are new to aviation.

Michael Huerta was the FAA administrator from 2013 to 2018. He now sits on the boards of Joby and Delta.

Michael Huerta, Former Federal Aviation Administration Administrator:

It's not going to be sufficient to say, this is how we have always done it. We really need to be thinking about, what are new ways to get aircraft certified, to get pilots into the system, and to enable operations for what will be a growing segment of the aviation industry?

Miles O'Brien:

But there could be a solution that would reduce aviation's carbon footprint in the near-term while it charts a course to a truly carbon-zero future. And the grease in this dumpster is a key part of that story.

We will serve up more on that in our next installment.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien in Boston.