Beta is live in Liverpool

The Beta Grand Tour continues

Did you know Liverpool’s airport, EGGP, is called Liverpool John Lennon Airport? As an aviation enthusiast and Beatles fan I’m tickled to learn this today. And I wouldn’t have learned it, had the Beta Alia CX300 not flown there from Dublin.

N214BT flew from Shannon to Dublin, then on to Liverpool. It’s the first time I’ve seen an electric aircraft cross an ocean not in a boat.

Mystery solved!

Though it was a boat that brought the CX300 to Ireland, it got to Liverpool entirely on its own “steam”. If my data is to be trusted, it made the 280 km flight in an hour and 40 minutes.

Apparently the idea is that they’ll fly the aircraft to Norway, where launch customer and global helicopter operator Bristow plans to use it to carry cargo between Bergen and Stavanger. So, from that I assume that between Beta and Bristow there is hope that the Alia 250 EVTOL might either add new capabilities or retire some of Bristow’s existing global fleet - Bristow also has (had?) purchase orders with Volocopter and Lilium. Wanfeng, Volocopter’s new owner, I would imagine will still push to fill the Bristow order. Though Wanfeng is no stranger to aviation given its ownership stake in Diamond, there is some uncertainty post acquisition to Bristow. Certainly, it appears that Bristow’s first electric fleet member (even if it isn’t quite an eVTOL yet) is a Beta aircraft, not a VoloCity.

I know there’s more electrified aviation than I am picking up in the UK (I haven’t spotted Vertical Aerospace or ZeroAvia yet, though I’m looking) - but its always nice to look at just how much is going on. Not just the Top Gear “Porsche vs Pipistrel” special either though that was fun to watch!

AeroVolt maintain a Pipistrel friendly GB/T charging network - the Henstridge and Thruxton stations featured in said Top Gear episode).

Norwich appears to be one of the largest concentrations of electrified aviation in UK, we’ve spotted 61 flights there and three separate Electros (AeroVolt, go put in a charger!). They also might be a decent place to stop next.. I suppose another question is “which way will they take” in order to get to Norway?

Aberdeen to Stavanger is nearly 500 km, so while this is a nice direct route, it seems unlikely… probably something more like this: