A very exciting thing happened this week…
Our company http://beta.team successfully flew one of our electric Alia aircraft from Plattsburgh NY to Bentonville , Arkansas last week. The flight was made in 7 hops each of about 200 miles.. The plane recharged from a truck that was following along on the ground. As far as I know it’s the longest all electric trip of an aircraft of our size and weight. .. The plane performed beautifully and was piloted alternately by my friends Lochie and Arlo .
I’m only able to talk about it now that its been publicly disclosed. (see this story in Popular Science today and this short video about the trip )
My friend Kyle (our CEO) flew down to be there for the last leg . He took a samstone for us to be aboard for this historic flight. Lochie was piloting and he sent me these pictures of his Samstone above Arkansas and in the hanger in Bentonville.
Here’s a video from the cockpit
Whats so cool about having a samstone on board is that in addition to doing freight logistics for some of the worlds biggest shippers, one of Beta’s primary missions is to deliver genetically engineered organs for transplantation. Sam was an organ donor and anyone who’s ever been involved in human organ transplantation knows just how hard it is to match donors and receivers. There just aren’t enough organs to go around. One of Beta’s first and principle investors is Martine Rotheblatt . Martine is an amazing inventor and visionary. She formed United Therapeutics.
to engineer live saving therapy for her daughter who had a rare disease. Since that time UT has pioneered many lifesaving therapies including human lung rehabilitation for transplant and the creation of genetically engineered animal organs that are designed to be suitable for human transplantation (eg see here)
Congratulations and thanks to all the folks at Beta who made this possible.. and huge thanks to Lochie , Kyle for taking Sam along for the ride !
nite all, nite sam
-me
