The five passengers who entered the Beta Technologies Alia all-electric aircraft on Tuesday morning for the first-ever electric plane passenger flight in the United States, weren’t wearing suits and dresses, the way old-timey airline passengers once did.
There was no champagne poured (okay, the plane took off at 10:22 a.m.), and only a small group of spectators gathered for the historic flight. Nonetheless, excitement was in the air at East Hampton Town Airport.
“I think quiet and sustainable aviation is the future,” said Rob Wiesenthal, the C.E.O. of Blade Air Mobility and one of the plane’s passengers. “This aircraft is quiet on takeoff and near silent in overflight. Noise and emissions have been a concern of the public for a long time. When you have quiet and emission-free aircraft, it unlocks the opportunity for more landing zones that are more convenient for people all over the country.”
On the tarmac, under the plane’s wing, he turned to Kyle Clark, Beta Technologies Founder and C.E.O., who piloted the plane in a pair of cowboy boots, and said, “This is a cool day.”
Mr. Wiesenthal said the planes could be using the town airport within two years. The Beta Alia has been in development for over six years, according to Mr. Clark, who expects the Federal Aviation Administration to certify it in about 18 months.
“The whole idea of this company was, how can we move helicopter transport to electric vertical aircraft. How can we do that?” We want that transition to happen quickly,” said Mr. Wiesenthal.
“The best thing about this is that the owner of Blade acknowledged there was a problem. To me, that’s unprecedented,” said Barry Raebeck, director of the Coalition to Transform East Hampton Airport, in a phone call yesterday. “For him to acknowledge that carbon and noise are a problem is a good thing.”
The 45-minute flight to J.F.K. went off without a hitch, and, according to Mr. Clark, cost only $8 in electricity to charge the plane. The same flight in a conventional plane would cost $350 in fuel.
“You’ve rendered the recurring cost of energy almost irrelevant, and that is one piece of making it more accessible and more sustainable,” said Mr. Clark. “It’s less impactful across the board.”
At the other end of the flight, 200 people and 20 news outlets, including bigwigs like NBC and FOX, were present, according to Mr. Wiesenthal.
“It’s going to be a cohabitation phase in the beginning,” he said in a phone call the day before. “Blade has already shifted a vast majority of our Hamptons flights to seaplanes. We’re sensitive to community concerns about noise. At the start of this season, 80 percent of our flights will be on seaplanes and only 20 percent will be helicopters. In addition, we’re using the noise abatement routes that optimize both safety and neighborly flying.”
Notably, even though the aircraft took off from the East Hampton Town Airport, not a single local politician was present. The town has been the defendant in multiple lawsuits brought by airport interests, including one by Blade, for trying to restrict access to the airport. Years of noise complaints from area residents, exacerbated by the exploding popularity of Blade’s helicopters, which began flying here in 2014, had forced the town board to act.
So, in 2022, when Federal Aviation Administration funding expired, allowing the town to gain control of airport operations, the plan was to shut it down and reopen it as a private-use airport. Similar to the Montauk Airport, planes seeking to land would need to ask for prior permission, and operating hours would be restricted.
However, an eleventh-hour restraining order, imposed by State Supreme Court Justice Paul Baisley, prevented the town from carrying out that plan. Justice Baisley has since retired, but litigation, which has cost the town millions, continues.
In February, the town sent out a press release leading many to believe a settlement was imminent. “The town continues to assess all available options with respect to the airport and is exploring options for a settlement agreement to resolve the ongoing litigation in a manner that provides reasonable access for aviation users while also providing relief to East Hampton residents,” Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said at the time.
After two months of silence, concerned citizens appeared in April at a town board meeting to express worry about the nature of the settlement. Since then, more silence.
On Tuesday, the town refused to discuss the negotiations. Town Attorney Jake Turner didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, in an email from her public information officer Patrick Derenze, said only that negotiations were “ongoing.”
“We are working hard,” said Mr. Wiesenthal, from the tarmac, about settlement negotiations. “We hope there is a settlement as soon as possible. We want this to be an airport for the community. The more accessible these aircraft are to everybody, the more people will be invested in this airport.”
“The town board recognizes the value of the East Hampton Town Airport to the community,” came a further statement from the supervisor, through Mr. Derenze, “but we have a public policy responsibility to protect residents from the adverse effects of aircraft noise and other environmental impacts,”
Mr. Wiesenthal said he’d personally emailed invites to Ms. Burke-Gonzalez and Councilwoman Cate Rogers to view the electric plane and attend its takeoff, and sent receipts of the emails to The Star.
Mr. Derenze said that while he couldn’t speak for Ms. Rogers, the town supervisor never received the email. The town’s I.T. department was investigating, he said.
“The town supervisor facilitated our photo permits,” said Mr. Wiesenthal. “She knew this was happening.”
Mr. Derenze indicated it was moot anyway, as the board had their regular scheduled work session at 11 a.m. and they would not have been able to attend.
At least one town employee showed interest. “It’s exciting from the standpoint that this is the wave of the future,” said Jim Brundige, the airport director. “As batteries get more efficient, and can lift more weight, and can last longer in flight, we’ll see more of these planes.”
Ironically enough, while the press was invited, ostensibly to hear how quiet the electric aircraft was, a Blade helicopter, idling within 100 feet of the experimental craft, drowned it out. Or perhaps that was proving the point.
The all-white aircraft looked like a cross between a helicopter and a small plane, with a somewhat bulbous fuselage that hung below long thin wings. The wings were attached, via booms, to two flaps mounted near a rear propeller, that rose above the plane of the wings, giving it a sort of multi-winged, “flying nun” appearance.
The doors to the fuselage, located under the wings, lifted up. The word “experimental” in gray lettering was written across its bottom. On its nose, a line drawing of a gray and white mountain range, under which was written “The Future.”
While locally, Blade is associated with helicopter noise and the one percent, Mr. Wiesenthal said the bulk of his company’s $250 million in revenues comes from transporting organs for transplant, not from Manhattan’s wealthy elite. (The cost to take a seaplane to the Hamptons from Manhattan runs anywhere from $900 to $1,100 without a season pass. A season pass, which runs $4,450, decreases the cost to $795 per flight.)
“We’ve been operating for over a decade in East Hampton. One of the things we’ve committed to is not only flying neighborly but transitioning from helicopters. This is the first step. The fact that the very first passenger flight in the U.S. is happening in East Hampton is very important to us. This is something that’s on the near-term horizon. It’s not something that’s just a dream.”
When the time came, the aircraft lifted over oak trees to the north and banked west into the blue sky. The only sound on the tarmac came from the Blade Helicopter, which continued to idle.
