“…Electra.aero, the developers of a hybrid-electric STOL, said it is on track to start flight testing its full-scale demonstrator aircraft later this year, bolstered by a recent financial investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures (LMV)

John Langford, founder and CEO of Electra, told eVTOL.com that while the company would not disclose the funds raised to date, this recent funding announcement will give the eSTOL developer the boost it would need to build a full-scale prototype and take off for the first time at one of its locations in Virginia or South Carolina in the second half of 2022.

“To date, we’ve been focusing on the hybrid-electric propulsion system development, which is a fairly sophisticated piece of equipment that has the turbo generator, batteries, motors — all of the control systems,” Langford said. “Now we’re using the Lockheed money to get that into the aircraft and start flying it.”

Electra is developing a hybrid-electric STOL, which it claims will be able to take off and land on runways as short as 300 feet (91 meters) using its distributed electric propulsion and blown lift technology, where the electric motor-driven propellers blow air over the entire span of the wing and its flaps.

The aircraft will include a small turbine-powered generator that can recharge the batteries mid-flight, removing the burden of having to establish new ground charging infrastructure…”