Electra on September 22, 2026 announced it successfully completed first-of-its-kind flights from a heliport on a commercial airport ramp at the Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport. The operations showcased the breakthrough capabilities of Electra’s fixed-wing Ultra Short aircraft to use vertical flight landing areas and helicopter-style instrument procedures to support reliable, affordable, and safe regional operations without adding traffic to congested airport runways.
Using Electra’s hybrid-electric EL2 Ultra Short aircraft, the flights tested point-in-space procedures and dedicated instrument routings across numerous Virginia airports, including Virginia Tech/Montgomery Regional Airport (KBCB) in Blacksburg, Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (KROA), and Allan C Perkinson/Blackstone AAF Airport (KBKT).
The flights at each of these locations, plus two additional sites in Newport News and Richmond, all took off and landed on small heliports, vertiports, taxiways, and other novel Ultra Short access points historically only accessible by helicopters. Electra conducted the work in coordination with the FAA eVTOL and AAM Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), the Virginia Smart Airspace Program, Virginia Tech, the Virginia Department of Aviation, and PennDOT, the lead eIPP participant for Virginia operations.
The operational milestones mark a major step toward integrating fixed-wing Ultra Short aircraft into the National Airspace System using low-cost, scalable procedures designed around the unique performance of next-generation electric and hybrid-electric aircraft and will support future operations of Electra’s flagship EL9.
These flights build on Electra’s role in the Virginia Smart Airspace Program, a pioneering effort to develop scalable instrument flight procedures and novel access points for Advanced Air Mobility. The program is focused on enabling aircraft with new performance capabilities to operate safely and predictably through point-in-space procedures, dedicated routing, and airport and vertiport integration, all while collecting data.
During flights, Electra and its partners collected operational data to compare aircraft performance against procedure requirements and inform future evaluation of fixed-wing AAM operations using helicopter-style instrument procedures. Through over a year of program development leading up to this month’s testing, Smart Airspace partners and the FAA designed flexible vertiport and heliport approaches to accommodate the Ultra Short, evaluated and tested novel approach and departure instrument procedures for the Ultra Short, and workshopped new air traffic concepts to allow the Ultra Short to land off-runway at airports safely and efficiently.
The EL9 Ultra Short is designed to deliver helicopter-like access with the benefits of fixed-wing flight, advancing Electra’s Rule of Six: the combination of expanded access, quiet operations, meaningful payload, practical range, uncompromising safety, and affordability needed to make Advanced Air Mobility practical at scale.
