Electric transportation offers the promise of rapid travel and zero emissions, often seen in the increasingly sophisticated electric cars that can travel 200 to 300 miles on a single charge. But electric air travel poses unique challenges, not the least of which includes swapping a jet fuel-powered engine for a battery-powered aircraft.
Now the South Burlington- and Plattsburgh-based Beta Technologies is demoing an electric "air taxi" that the company says will be the electric aircraft at the center of planned cross-country flight this summer.
Kyle Clark, an engineer and president at Beta, joins Vermont Edition to talk about the eVTOL—or electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle—the company is developing, the benefits of electric aviation and the challenges still facing electric air travel.
Broadcast live on Monday, Feb. 4, 2019 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
