A new kind of aircraft departs an MIT classroom and arrives at an Ohio factory

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u/rayferrell 10d ago

i think what's significant here is that electra is focusing on a specific range of distances, 50 to 250 miles, where their tech can offer a real advantage over existing transport options. this could be especially useful for regional travel, where commercial airlines often aren't practical and driving can be time-consuming. by targeting this niche, electra may be able to carve out a successful market for themselves.

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u/btsd_ 9d ago

I wish we would invest in trains more for these distances

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u/Super_Assistant_2998 9d ago

I wish train travel wasn’t as expensive as a flight.

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u/JrSoftDev 9d ago

It doesn't have to be

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u/Quazimojojojo 9d ago

This is a consequence of the underinvestment.

German trains are pretty shit but you can get a high speed train to travel 200 miles for about €60 departing at a reasonable time. Even when I travel across the whole country, 650+ kilometers (so, what, 400 miles?) I've never paid more than €70 ish.

And that's the high end. If you leave at low demand times, sub €30 tickets are very common.

With no fees for bags.

The only flights you can get at that price leave at ungodly hours and transport just you, no bags.

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u/Super_Assistant_2998 9d ago

I’ve heard trains in Europe are wonderful. I remember taking the train in Korea for cheap, too.

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u/Quazimojojojo 9d ago

Overall yeah. Deutsche Bahn is a mess because Germany has similar issues as America (auto industry lobbying which has completely bought out the party in power and pushes for underinvestment in trains), it's just not as bad as America.

But DB is by far the worst in Western Europe and, if you know what you're getting into and how to work around the system, it's still pretty good and I'm very glad it exists.

The rest are better as far as I know

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u/D_Simmons 9d ago

I took the train in Austria from Graz to Vienna and it was awesome. Maybe $70 for a 2.5 hour train across the country.

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u/rgvmadness 9d ago

We have shit trains too. But with 27x as much land our trains have to cover, 1/6 the population per square mile as Germany, and everyone in such a big hurry all the time, it’s not so easy to make the ticket price here attractive.

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u/Quazimojojojo 9d ago edited 9d ago

Miss me with that "America is too big" nonsense. Russia is even bigger and less 'densely populated' (which is kind of a useless metric in this case because we're not evenly spread across the land, we're concentrated in a series of towns and cities) and they have better trains.

When I was growing up in the US I didn't need a regular train from NYC to LA. I just wanted decent service between Cleveland and Chicago instead of a dog shit 4 AM once daily service that gets delayed by freight traffic half the time because the freight company violates right of way, but the law giving passenger trains priority has no actual way to punish freight companies for doing this.

Or literally any train at all connecting Cleveland to Columbus and Cincinnati, or Chicago to Indianapolis, or anything that connects the Midwest to the South without first going all the way to the east coast. Or Cleveland to Pittsburgh.

Connections between noteworthy regional cities of 300,000 + people.

You know, like America used to have. And it was profitable too, back then.

America didn't choose to move on from trains. They were actively destroyed by lobbying and underhanded business tactics from the airline and automotive industries.

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u/rgvmadness 9d ago

You’re right. I forgot about the money to grease the wheels of the system, the lawyers, courts, politicians and stock holders. That’s 99% of the ticket price right there.

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u/Quazimojojojo 9d ago

I can't tell where you're going with this. What are you saying?

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u/DevilsInkpot 9d ago

Your examples just make the opposite point: 70 EUR compared to the median purchasing power in Germany is very expensive. At the same time, you can buy flights going 1500 miles at the same price.

Median household purchasing power for 2020-2025 in Germany was roughly 23k annually or 1900 EUR monthly. If a family of three takes a single 200km train ride for 70 each, they spend more than 10% of their budget on a single ride. That isn’t cheap, that is absolutely bonkers!

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u/Quazimojojojo 9d ago edited 9d ago

You can use macroeconomic trends as much as you like.

I counter with my lived experience.

I live here, and as an apprentice my net income is like €800 a month because I'm an apprentice, so I earn less than minimum wage.

Nothing in Germany is 1500 miles away so I don't care how cheap that is.

For €30 / month (because my company subsidies half of the subscription price) I can take infinite regional trains if I want to get somewhere slowly, or pay a little extra (literally €60 if I travel all the way across the county to Munich, €30 to get somewhere closer like Hamburg) for non-peak times for an express train and get there faster.

Kids get discount tickets by the way. Like, half the cost. Students get discounts too until you're 27, at which point you're expected to be earning, net, a decent amount. €1700-€1900 or so for a single working person.

So the big family trip across the county for a holiday would cost more like €150 to get there for all 3. You could do that monthly if you really wanted to. Not easily, but it's possible and wouldn't break the bank.

And I don't need a car, so my day to day travel expenses are effectively €40/month (that subscription includes infinite local buses, but I usually bike and maintenance costs are like €200 in an expensive year)

And my rent is €400/month. Utilities included.

So at wages roughly on par with American minimum wage, I feel pretty comfortable financially and can travel within the country pretty much all I want.

Also we have hostels so you can get a bed in most cities for literally €30/night.

All I need to do is use some of my 28 vacation days to allow a day of train hopping to get places cheap, or plan in advance and pay the price of a restaurant meal for 2 to get all the way across the county comfortably.

I don't care what your PPP comparison says. I can afford, and can practically do, more travel here than I could in the US with more than double the income.

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u/Pseudoboss11 6d ago edited 6d ago

Where are you getting 1500 mile flights for 60 euros?

Also, from the previous comment, 70 eur was for a trip across the country. 60eur was for a 200 mile trip.

I'm also not sure where your purchasing power comparison is coming from. Both the trip and wages are denominated in euros, just use disposable income, which is €47,910 source. This makes a 3 person trip to around 5% of the monthly income.

Even in the US, long trips like that are pretty rare, with trips longer than 50 miles making up 2% of all trips, and those are just trips over 50 miles (80km), and most of those are still under 100 miles.

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u/AgentK-BB 9d ago

We have the space to not live in such high density in the US, and people prefer to live in lower density. Trains don't make sense for most places here. Planes best serve the way of life that most people prefer in the US.

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u/picardo85 9d ago

Difficult and/or expensive to put rail under/over water or through/around mountains

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u/PrinterFred 9d ago

Sadly train transport has not yet been invented so we must look for other more expensive and lower capacity alternatives.

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u/AP_in_Indy 9d ago

I’ll upvote even though I’m uninformed. I’m assuming short range flight can be useful for medical transport as well as personal travel if you want to beat traffic

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u/EVJpodcast 9d ago

I know a few people who refuse to drive over four hours if they can fly it.

From the comments, it sounds like this will hit that market really well if it can get there and that attitude is more prevalent thab my own limited personal experience

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u/AP_in_Indy 9d ago

Oh yeah probably quick flights between metros. Once self driving cars get better I’m sure it will make many car rides less tedious

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u/D_Simmons 9d ago

I mean, yeah, if I could fly somewhere in 30 mins where I normally have to drive 4 hours it would be unreal.

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u/shootemupy2k 9d ago

Yup. Regional travel where the aircraft isn’t expected to climb to altitudes where turbofans or turboprops are most efficient.

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u/jmartin21 9d ago

Sounds like a great option for medevacs

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u/sometimelater0212 8d ago

Joby has been working in this for years. Not novel

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u/Toobman300B 10d ago

Tier 2 taxi🚕🚖. Land in your office parking lot. Beat the traffic that the plebs sit in.

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u/Polite_Suggestion 10d ago

I went the other way and thought it's an Alaska taxi.

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u/Toobman300B 9d ago

Geolocation based comment?. Charger infrastructure in Alaska?

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u/Polite_Suggestion 9d ago

Bright yellow fixed wing association. Everywhere you won't lose one in the woods, they're white!

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u/Pleasant-Lead-2634 10d ago

Already in production

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u/NoEmu5969 10d ago

It’s a win even if it just replaces some private jets.

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u/whitewateractual 9d ago

Looks like it could replace basic island hopping, ultra short haul, and repositioning flights. Not sure about most private routes.

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u/NoEmu5969 9d ago

None of the commercial flights from my local airport exceed 1200 miles. SBA, VNY, ANA, BUR, get PJ traffic between them all day long.

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u/whitewateractual 9d ago

Yeah, essentially covers repositioning. Would be cool to see in action.

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u/NoEmu5969 9d ago

Flyhouse could be accessible to more people if these cut costs. It will be interesting to see what the FAA approves for inspection and overhaul schedules.

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u/ZantaraLost 9d ago

Depends on the max load but if it's competitive in price I could see it hitting that sweet spot for the certain snowbird type that typically go for Cessnas.

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u/MatureScorpius 9d ago

Search for STOL competition. Short take offs and landings are nothing new. Multi passenger is interesting though.

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u/mhsx 9d ago

I would imagine anyone developing a new type of aircraft is thinking about military use cases.

Having a small, quiet plane that can come in from range and get out on with only a small improvised landing surface is going to be attractive to special forces types.

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u/bb_kelly77 9d ago

Especially paired with the new Skyraider

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u/shawn1969 9d ago

Most interest - CIA followed by Alaska

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u/healeyd 9d ago

‘Hey guys we have a big client from Columbia on the phone… wants to pay in cash!”

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u/C__S__S 9d ago

Incredible to be able to takeoff and land within 70 feet! That really increases the places this thing can go.

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u/Klutzy_Journalist_36 9d ago

Imagine being a cool new useful aircraft straight out of MIT only to end up in Ohio.

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u/Sufficient-Struggle7 9d ago

what price point are they projecting ?

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u/joevinci 9d ago

“It wouldn’t just be a luxury product, so it could help a lot of people.”

is what you say to get public funding.

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u/RefuseDependent5242 9d ago

I live in Luxembourg, and half of our workforce comes from a different country, causing traffic jams. Short distance flights from Germany, France, and Belgium would be nice. It is a lot cheaper to live in those countries, but the commute sucks. Our Airport has a free tram that connects people to the rest of the free public transportation in the country.