BETA Flew Its Electric Plane for a Texas EMS Crew in Brenham
On Sept. 24 BETA and Metro Aviation said the ALIA CTOL flew in Brenham with Washington County EMS. It was BETA's first Texas flight under the federal eVTOL pilot program. The job was moving disaster gear.
So basically: On Sept. 24, BETA Technologies and Metro Aviation said they flew BETA’s all electric ALIA in Brenham, Texas, with Washington County EMS. The plane takes off like a normal plane. The test was moving disaster response gear, not carrying a patient.
What they actually flew
The aircraft is the ALIA CTOL, the conventional takeoff version, not the vertical takeoff ALIA. BETA calls this its first flight in Texas under the U.S. Department of Transportation and FAA eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The work sits inside Project Nexus, which the Texas Department of Transportation leads.
Washington County EMS answers more than 7,000 calls a year across about 700 square miles. Metro has flown an EC145 helicopter for that agency since June 2022. County Commissioner Kirk Hanath and EMS leaders watched the ALIA operate. The release does not give a flight time, a distance, or a weight for the gear on board.
The route they are testing runs from Galveston to Sugar Land to Brenham. BETA says a Charge Cube charger is already online in Galveston. The idea is to see whether the electric plane can sit next to the helicopter and the ground ambulances the county already uses.
What this is not
This is not a passenger air taxi hop into a big airport. BETA’s note is about equipment for an agency that covers a rural county, including the Brazos River and Lake Somerville. Metro, based in Shreveport, is the operator in the middle. It finishes and flies medical helicopters, and it has been working with BETA for more than three years.
Simon Newitt, who runs sales and support at BETA, said the Brenham flight is one piece of a model they want to repeat with other operators. That is a plan. The flight itself is one demonstration.
My take
An EMS agency watching a real electric airplane move gear is more concrete than another air taxi render. The missing numbers are the ones that would tell you if it helps: how far it flew, what it carried, and how long the charger took after. Until those are public, this is a first Texas look under the pilot program, on a runway plane, beside a helicopter that already does the job.
So basically — pass it on.