(Montreal) Another manufacturer in the electric aviation sector is opening a branch in Quebec. The American company Beta Technologies officially announced on Wednesday the opening of an engineering center in Montreal.
The center already has about fifty employees. The Montreal team will play a role in the development and certification of Beta’s ALIA aircraft. The all-electric device is designed to fly short distances.
In June 2022, Beta’s prototype flew 2,000 nautical miles round trip from Plattsburgh, New York to Bentonville, Arkansas. The device stopped on the way to be recharged using the infrastructure that the company is developing in parallel.
The start-up company founded in 2017 in Vermont counts Amazon among its shareholders. In 2021, it signed a major contract with courier company UPS for an order of up to 150 devices. At the time of signing, the first 10 devices were expected to be delivered in 2024.
Beta is not the only American company in the electric aviation sector to have plans for Quebec. This is the case of the Texas company Jaunt Air Mobility, which is developing an electric aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically. The company that is generating interest in a potential flying taxi service in the Montreal area has operations in Quebec.